Joe Root backs ‘brilliant leader’ Jos Buttler as England face crucial game

Joe Root has stressed Jos Buttler’s white-ball setup is in better shape than the Test side that buckled towards the back end of his own captaincy, as England attempt to keep their Champions Trophy hopes alive in their controversial match against Afghanistan on Wednesday.

Battling to reach the semi-finals after the record-breaking five-wicket defeat against Australia over the weekend, England have endured a further blow with news that the fast bowler Brydon Carse has been ruled out of the tournament with the recurrence of a toe injury.

Victory against Afghanistan on Wednesday in their day-nighter – a match that has been the subject of calls for a boycott by England over women’s rights in the country – is now non-negotiable as regards staying in the hunt for a semi-final spot; perhaps similarly for a captain who has overseen eight defeats from nine white-ball international games this year.

“I certainly think that this team are doing more things right than maybe some of the teams I captained were doing,” said Root, who stepped down as Test captain in early 2022 after a run of one win from his last 17 matches.

“[Buttler has to] trust everything that he’s doing. He’s doing so much right on the field, making good decisions and creating a really good environment for us to thrive in.

“I think he’s a brilliant leader. He’s the best white-ball player we’ve ever produced and he’s got the full support of everyone within our dressing room to keep going.”

Rob Key, England’s team director, kept faith with Buttler after poor defences of the 50-over and T20 World Cup tournaments and is in Pakistan watching the squad first-hand. So far, his decision to expand Brendon McCullum’s head coach role to incorporate the white-ball side has not delivered the same uplift in results that the Test team had post-Root.

Brydon Carse struggled at the Gaddafi Stadium against Australia on Saturday, proving England’s most expensive bowler, going at 9.85 per over. Photograph: Matthew Lewis-ICC/ICC/Getty Images

As regards the XI to face Afghanistan at the Gaddafi Stadium, one change is expected, with Jamie Overton in line to replace Carse. The latter struggled with toe blisters on the recent tour of India, with the removal of stitches before the Australia game followed by an infection. Impeded, Carse was England’s most expensive bowler on the night.

Flagged up by Carse’s absence from training on Monday, the issue has now ended his tournament and could yet affect his intended spell in the Indian Premier League next month. On Monday night the International Cricket Council approved the leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed as his replacement, with tournament rules not requiring a like-for-like player.

The switch arguably makes England’s 15-man squad more rounded, not least if they somehow progress to the first semi-final in Dubai. The ground there is hosting all of India’s matches for the longstanding geopolitical reasons and is likely to require a second frontline spinner alongside Buttler’s established trump card, Adil Rashid.

Not that England can afford to think that far ahead, their match against Afghanistan being a must-win game, likewise Saturday against South Africa in Karachi should they claim that initial victory. One advantage against the Afghans is familiarity with conditions in Lahore, even if Buttler’s side failed to transcend the evening dew against Australia.

Afghanistan’s presence in this tournament – indeed their very status as an ICC full member nation – remains the subject of much scrutiny given the grim regime of “gender apartheid” in the country that has seen women stripped of even basic rights. Under Taliban rule, its cricket board has duly been unable to deliver a women’s programme.

The England and Wales Cricket Board is lobbying the ICC to at least tackle the latter issue head on, with funding for an Afghan women’s team in exile representing one demand. Richard Gould, the ECB chief executive, is another in Lahore for the match and took the heat off Buttler and his players this month by ruling out a boycott.

Root, who was part of the England side who were stunned by Afghanistan during the 2023 World Cup, said: “[Key, the ECB and Buttler] all spoke with experts on the ground and don’t see that boycotting this game is going to make any sort of positive impact.

“Clearly there’s things over there that are hard to hear and read up on but cricket is such a source of joy for so many people. For a number of people within Afghanistan, cricket gives them hope, gives them joy. Hopefully the two teams can do that in this next fixture.

“From our point of view, we’re playing and we’ve got to make sure that we put our best foot forward, play our best cricket and find ourselves on the right side of the result.”