“I’m fully determined that we can turn this around. I’ve got great faith in Jos: he’s hurting now and he’ll be feeling like there’s a lot on him. I certainly feel like I could have done things a lot better. But I’ve been in the job 18 months: we’ve won a World Cup and lost a World Cup. I think I’ve shown the capability that I can coach this team.”
Buttler said on Thursday night that he retains “a lot of confidence and belief in myself as a leader” despite England’s results, but conceded that his future lies in the hands of the ECB. “If you’re asking if I should still be captaining the team, that’s a question for the guys above me,” he said.
“I think, having experiences from the past where I’ve had tournaments like this, I’ve shown an ability to be able to turn things around,” Mott said. “So that’ll have to happen pretty quickly. But yeah, what will be, will be.”
England travelled to Lucknow on Friday ahead of their next fixture against India on Sunday, for which they are massive underdogs. “[They] are probably raging favourites at the moment,” Mott said. “That’s an opportunity to restore some pride and confidence in the group, and every opportunity we get to play together is vital now to try and find our mojo again.”
After picking a side comprising 11 players aged 30 or over for the first time in their ODI history against Sri Lanka, England will consider making changes again on Sunday. All four of the squad members who did not feature on Thursday – Gus Atkinson, Harry Brook, Brydon Carse and Sam Curran – are aged between 24 and 28.
Mott did not commit to using young players for the rest of the World Cup, despite widespread expectations that England will overhaul their ODI set-up after this tournament. They still have four group matches to play, with fixtures against Australia, Netherlands and Pakistan after Sunday’s clash with India.
“We’ll just try and keep picking our best side for the conditions – as we’ve tried to do all the way throughout,” Mott said. “What we need to get our heads around is restoring pride… that is our first priority at the moment: to make sure we come out and give India a good scrap, and hopefully perform a lot better than we have.”
