{"id":293122,"date":"2023-10-04T17:24:39","date_gmt":"2023-10-04T17:24:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports-life-news.com\/?p=293122"},"modified":"2023-10-04T17:24:39","modified_gmt":"2023-10-04T17:24:39","slug":"jos-buttler-dreaming-of-creating-something-new","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports-life-news.com\/%d1%81ricket\/jos-buttler-dreaming-of-creating-something-new\/","title":{"rendered":"Jos Buttler dreaming of 'creating something new'"},"content":{"rendered":"
Jos Buttler goes into Thursday’s World Cup opener against New Zealand dreaming of \u2018creating something new\u2019 as England chase a third global trophy in four years \u2013 despite a fresh injury cloud descending on Ben Stokes.<\/p>\n
England\u2019s star all-rounder cut a peripheral figure during an evening training session at the vast Narendra Modi Stadium on Wednesday, having picked up a niggle to his left hip that is likely to rule him out of the competition curtain-raiser and raises questions about his readiness for the rest of their title defence.<\/p>\n
Buttler suggested that now was \u2018not the time to take big risks on someone at the start of the tournament\u2019, with every team facing nine group matches each before the semi-finals start on November 15. The upshot is that Harry Brook, himself a late replacement for the injured Jason Roy, is set to make his 50-over World Cup debut.<\/p>\n
But of particular concern will be the fact that, until now, Stokes has been battling with a chronic left knee problem that has turned him into a specialist batsman. The hip problem first emerged during England\u2019s warm-up game against Bangladesh on Monday in Guwahati, though it wasn\u2019t until Tuesday that Stokes asked team medics for help.<\/p>\n
As he hobbled around training on the outfield, it seemed inconceivable he would be exposed to the fray of a World Cup opener that brings together the two finalists from the Lord\u2019s thriller of 2019. His next target is Tuesday\u2019s match against Bangladesh in Dharamshala.<\/p>\n
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England captain Jos Buttler is confident ahead of the World Cup opener against New Zealand\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not even Stokes\u2019s latest fitness crisis, though, could dampen Buttler\u2019s enthusiasm as he sets about trying to make history.<\/p>\n
England are already the first men\u2019s side to hold both World Cups simultaneously. But if they triumph this time, culminating in the final back here in Ahmedabad on November 19, Buttler will become the first captain to lead a team to glory in both white-ball formats.<\/p>\n
India remain favourites to lift a trophy that has been won by the hosts for every edition since 2011. But England, despite dropping to fifth in the rankings, lead the chasing pack, and Buttler offered two rallying cries on the eve of competition.<\/p>\n
The first was that he doesn\u2019t want to talk in terms of a title \u2018defence\u2019, since the noun he generally prefers is \u2018attack\u2019. The second is that the past is another country, even if as many as six of Thursday’\u2019s line-up took part in England\u2019s barest-of-margins victory under Eoin Morgan against New Zealand four years ago.<\/p>\n
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Ben Stokes is likely to miss the competition curtain-raiser due to a small hip problem\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018The past is in the past,\u2019 said Buttler. \u2018You can\u2019t recreate something or hold on to it for ever. It\u2019s all about something new. It\u2019s fantastic to be reigning champions and I won\u2019t say we’ve left that behind completely, because it\u2019s a nice place to be.<\/p>\n
\u2018But you\u2019ve given that trophy back now. It\u2019s done. It\u2019s about trying to create something new. We must be hungry to do it again.\u2019<\/p>\n
Asked whether England fans were right to dream of another World Cup success, Buttler replied: \u2018Absolutely, we\u2019re all dreamers and we all want to be able to say those things. The biggest thing is we know we are a team who like being in that position of having expectations. It\u2019s a great place to be.\u2019<\/p>\n
The 18th one-day World Cup begins amid whispers of the format\u2019s impending demise, caught in no-man\u2019s land between the rigours of Test cricket and the adrenaline boost of T20.<\/p>\n
If there are too many empty seats on Thursday at a stadium whose capacity of over 130,000 makes it the world\u2019s biggest, those whispers will inevitably grow.<\/p>\n
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Buttler is dreaming of \u2018creating something new\u2019 as England chase a third trophy in four years<\/p>\n
But, for the players, the 50-over World Cup still trumps the T20 edition. And England were too busy trying to work out their best XI to fret too much about the bigger picture.<\/p>\n
With dew a factor at this time of year in northern India, teams may be averse to bowling second under lights with a spin-heavy attack, which could be bad news for Moeen Ali, and bring both Sam Curran and Reece Topley into the equation.<\/p>\n
New Zealand, meanwhile, remain without their batting linchpin Kane Williamson, who is in India but not yet fully recovered from a cruciate-ligament injury, and their veteran seamer Tim Southee, who broke a thumb during the 3-1 ODI defeat in England last month.<\/p>\n
The relevance of that series will be even more diminished in Stokes\u2019s absence, since it was his pulsating 182 off 124 balls that gave England control in the third match at The Oval.<\/p>\n
But, Stokes or no Stokes, Buttler\u2019s team have their eye on the ball \u2013 and a prize that would see them go down as arguably the greatest white-ball side of all time.<\/p>\n
England:<\/span> Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jos Buttler (capt, wkt), Liam Livingstone, Sam Curran, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood, Adil Rashid, Reece Topley.<\/p>\n New Zealand: <\/span>Devon Conway, Will Young, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham (capt, wkt), Glenn Phillips, Jimmy Neesham, Mitchell Santner, Matt Henry, Lockie Ferguson, Ish Sodhi, Trent Boult.<\/p>\n Umpires:<\/span> Nitin Menon (India) and Kumar Dharmasena (Sri Lanka)<\/p>\n