ICC Champions Trophy: Buttler aiming for 'perfect game' in must-win showdown against Afghanistan
England's captain, Jos Buttler, expressed on Tuesday that his team remains optimistic despite their initial loss in the Champions Trophy, as they aim for a "perfect game" against Afghanistan.
The upcoming match in Lahore on Wednesday has taken on a critical significance, resembling a virtual knockout, following the cancellation of Tuesday's Group B encounter between Australia and South Africa, which resulted in both teams earning one point.
In their opening match of the eight-nation tournament, England was defeated by their Ashes rivals, Australia, after failing to defend a total of 351-8 at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.
South Africa delivered a strong performance against Afghanistan in their first match.
"Pretty much from the start of the tournament every game is a 'must-win'," Buttler told reporters.
"We've got two games left to progress further. We have to win those games so that's a very clear situation for us to be in."
Buttler also said he had faith in his pace bowling attack in spite of the pasting they received at the hands of Australia.
"We've got great confidence in those guys," said Buttler.
"Level of performance was good and as always there's little areas we want to improve and chase that perfect game."
Jofra Archer went for 82 off his 10 overs as Josh Inglis hammered an unbeaten 120. Mark Wood conceded 75 and Brydon Carse, who will miss the rest of the tournament because of a toe injury, went for 69 off seven.
"The debrief (to the quicks) was pretty easy, to be honest. We all felt that we did good things in places and probably just weren't quite consistent enough in a couple of areas.
"And also sometimes you've got to give credit to someone who plays an outstanding innings."
Buttler said his team has put the defeat aside to focus on the Afghanistan game.
"We've parked that now," he said. "We're looking forward to the game tomorrow. The guys have all prepared really well, we've turned up with a lot of positivity and trying to impart our style of playing.
Buttler's tenure as captain of the white-ball team has not yielded favorable outcomes since he guided the squad to victory in the T20 World Cup in 2022.
As defending champions at the 50-over World Cup held in India in 2023, his England side managed to secure only three wins out of nine matches.
The team experienced a setback in the semi-finals of the previous year's T20 World Cup and recently faced a 3-0 ODI defeat in India, just prior to the Champions Trophy.
"At any time as a captain you want to perform and you want to perform well and you want to lead your team to winning games in cricket. We haven't been doing that enough in the recent past," said Buttler.
England experienced an unexpected defeat against Afghanistan during the 2023 ODI World Cup held in New Delhi. Buttler expressed his "respect" for the opposing team and their exceptional spinners, notably Rashid Khan. However, he emphasized that England would focus on eliminating negativity and highlighting the positive aspects.
"As soon as you catch yourself thinking about any negative things, you just try and completely forget that and focus on all of the positive things that could go right and where you can take the team," he said.
England will be compelled to implement a minimum of one alteration for the match on Wednesday, as Carse has been excluded from the tournament and has been substituted in the squad by leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed.
SportsLigue