England limited Overs skipper Jos Buttler has no qualms about his team’s 3-0 ODI series loss against Australia, with the last match of the same having taken place on Tuesday at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
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An England versus Australia Cricket rivalry being conducted at one of the most iconic venues having a crowd turnout of mere one-tenth of its total capacity, speaks a lot about the overall disengagement the fans have had for the ODI series.
Australia were all up for the task which was exhibited with the way they performed in all the three matches. England, on the other hand, still deserved to be in the celebratory mood following their T20 World Cup heist, and certainly did not deserve to compete in a bilateral ODI series mere three days after experiencing one of the proudest days in their respective careers.
But as things stand of today, England were not only whitewashed 0-3 in the series, but also suffered their biggest ever defeat in the 50-over format, with a massive 221-run loss in the final ODI.
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Australia’s victory platform was laid by their opening batting pair of David Warner (106) and Travis Head (152), who stitched together a 269-run stand – the biggest ever ODI stand at the MCG, to help their team post 355/5 in 48 Overs.
In reply, all England could manage was post 142 on the board in 31.4 Overs, with Jason Roy (33) emerging as the top-scorer.
Jos Buttler slams ICC for poor scheduling of bilateral fixtures
During an interaction with BBC, Jos Buttler did admit the fact that his team was outplayed by the Aussies in the series, but also maintained that he was ‘not fussed at all about the results’.
He then indirectly slammed the ICC for doing very little to ensure that bilateral Cricket remains relevant, and that scheduling series as such does all harm and no good.
“Just to take care of it, find a way to keep it all relevant. Maybe the ICC tournaments should be a little bit more spread out: it gives you a little bit more time to prepare and it makes them probably a bit more special when they do come around as well,” remarked Buttler.
Buttler also added that the tight scheduling makes it more than just challenging for the upcoming set of players, who do wish to play all the formats but cannot due to very less breathing space between successive matches.
