Jos Buttler has announced he will step down as England’s white-ball cricket captain after Saturday’s clash with South Africa.
It comes after England crashed out of the group stage of the ICC Champions Trophy at the hands of Afghanistan.
Wednesday’s defeat in Lahore followed a loss to Australia in the opening game and made it six straight ODI defeats under Buttler’s leadership.
Buttler, 34, who succeeded Eoin Morgan in June 2022 and led England to T20 World Cup glory later that year, will step aside after Saturday’s final Group B match against South Africa in Karachi.
Announcing his decision at a news conference on Friday, Buttler said: “I’m going to stand down as England captain, it’s the right decision for me and the team.
“Hopefully somebody else can come in and work closely alongside Baz [head coach Brendon McCullum] to take the team back to where it needs to be.”
Buttler said it was “quite clear” why he was quitting, in comments reported by Sky Sports.
“This tournament was going to be important results-wise for my captaincy, and obviously two losses and being out of the tournament with a bit of a hangover from some tournaments before, it probably reached the end of the road for me and my captaincy.
“It’s a shame, I am sad about that. With Brendon only coming in recently, I was excited about working closely with him and hoped for a quick turnaround to take the team forward, but it’s not worked out that way,” he said.
England Jos Buttler holds up the 2019 Cricket World Cup after England beat New Zealand in the final at Lord’s. Pic: PA
He said he would review “all possibilities” after the Afghanistan defeat and would decide if he was “part of the solution or part of the problem”. He appears to have settled on the latter conclusion.
Buttler has led the team to 22 defeats in 34 ODIs since taking over as skipper, a highly disappointing record for a team not long ago viewed as the leaders in limited-overs cricket.
England were also eliminated at the group stage of the 2023 50-over World Cup, having entered as defending champions.
T20 results have been inconsistent, too, and England were flattered to reach the semi-finals of last year’s World Cup, before being thrashed by India.
A subsequent review saw limited-overs coach Matthew Mott step down, to be succeeded by Test match coach Brendon McCullum.
The New Zealander tried to reinvigorate both the team and its captain, admitting Buttler had looked “a bit miserable at times” and hoped to bring a smile back to his face.
Vice-captain Harry Brook is favourite to succeed Buttler, but the Yorkshire middle-order batter is already a first-choice in all three formats and may not be able to play every series.
Openers Phil Salt and Ben Duckett are also thought to be in the running, along with all-rounders Liam Livingstone and Sam Curran.
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