Jos Buttler was at a loss to explain England’s frequent batting collapses, even as he stressed on the need for more hard work and discipline to make them a thing of the past.
England squandered a brisk start, coming back after lunch on Sunday, 19 August, the second day of the third Test against India at Trent Bridge, to go from 54-0 to 161 all out in their first innings.
Between 1938 and October 2016, England had never lost all 10 wickets in a session. Since then, however, they have done so three times.
“It’s very disappointing,” agreed Buttler. “After a really good start to the day as well, picking up those early wickets and being 50 for none. We let that slip. It’s important we can recognise why it’s happened, and improve.”
Buttler was the top scorer of the innings with 39, with the rest of the batsmen perishing to disciplined bowling by India, first by Ishant Sharma and then Hardik Pandya, who picked up his maiden five-wicket haul.
Buttler, though, insisted the mood in the camp was good and the team would not give up the fight easily.
“It was always going to be a competitive series. Just because they were 2-0 down I don’t think we could have taken anything lightly,” he said. “We’ll turn up tomorrow and we’ll be fighting hard. No one’s going to give up or throw the towel in.”
