Spinner Rehan Ahmed stood up to support England captain Jos Buttler’s leadership following England’s four-wicket loss to the West Indies in the opening One-Day International (ODI) of the three-game series at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua. This occurs amid criticism of the 33-year-old’s leadership from England’s top Test scorer and former captain, Alastair Cook.
Alastair Cook had expressed concerns about the way the England captain was using his resources in the West Indies, especially in relation to the possibility of using Will Jacks’ off-spin in the middle overs to relieve pressure on the seamers. Ahmed refuted this critique, stating that Buttler was an excellent captain and that England was competitive all the way through the first ODI.
“Jos is an amazing captain.” He alone makes the call. By the end, we were in a wonderful position. It wasn’t as if the entire game consisted of poor choices. You can’t really blame anything on Jacksy’s lack of bowling, in my opinion. We seemed to be in the game the entire time, in my opinion. We simply failed to execute in the end. As the Belfast Telegraph reported, Ahmed stated, “We were always still in the game.”
Jos Buttler is deemed the greatest white-ball player by Rehan Ahmed
Even though Rehan contributed to England’s first ODI wicket total, he acknowledged his captain’s continued struggles at the bat and went on to praise the right-hander as potentially the best white-ball player. But the wicket-keeper batsman has been struggling with a dry spell in his hitting, which has included a lackluster World Cup run as a captain and batter.
“He slaps me all over the place when I bowl to him in the nets. Even if he’s still Jos Buttler, some people can struggle with running at times. Ahmed remarked, “He’s probably the best white-ball player I’ve bowled against.”
Buttler, meanwhile, acknowledged that he had been scoring poorly for a time and expressed frustration with his batting slump. He had not scored a fifty in 13 innings in this format of ODIs until being dismissed for 3 off 13 balls in Antigua, making it his seventh total of less than ten in the previous eight matches.
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