World Cup: 'We're not robots, just one loss at the start of a long tournament'

After a heavy nine-wicket defeat against New Zealand, England captain Jos Buttler on Thursday said players are not robots and such off days would come their way in top-flight cricket.

In a match that was billed as a repeat of the 2019 World Cup final, New Zealand thrashed England in this edition's opener at Ahmedabad, and Buttler said it was just the first game of a long tournament.

“We're not robots. Sometimes you don't play as well as you would like, off days would come. Everyone's working hard, everyone's prepared well and as I said, we were just a bit off,” Butter said during the post-match press conference.

However, Buttler did not take the defeat as a complete downer, and urged his players to treat the result in a similar manner.

“Yeah, disappointed (after the loss). (We were) completely outplayed. But the first thing that springs to mind is whether you do lose by a run or a defeat like that, it is one loss at the start of a very long tournament. That's something that I'd be encouraging everyone to remember,” said Buttler.

‘Certainly a tough loss to take’ 

The England skipper said their players have the experience to put behind this defeat.

“It's certainly a tough loss to take. But you know we've got a lot of experience in the room — guys who've been through lots of things and faced defeats like that before,” Buttler said.

“Just as we had won the game, we don't get too high and we don't get too low when we lose as well,” he added.

Buttler said the absence of Ben Stokes, who missed the contest due to a hip niggle, did not make any difference to the outcome.

“I think Ben's a top player but we've got many top players. I think everyone in the team got into double figures today and we didn't have enough guys to go on and make telling contributions,” Buttler said.

‘We gifted NZ a few wickets’

Buttler said England were guilty of gifting wickets to New Zealand.

“We weren't quite clinical enough with our shot making and gifted New Zealand a few wickets. The execution was not there,” he said.

The Somerset cricketer said England would have liked more runs on the board while batting first.

“I think we were short of runs with the bat. I think the wicket probably did get better under the lights, but I think we were a long way short of our best with the bat and still made 280,” he said.

‘They played excellent cricket shots’ 

Buttler praised the New Zealand pair of Rachin Ravindra (123 not out) and Devon Conway (152 not out) for the quality of strokes they played.

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“If I look back, it wasn't like they were playing outrageous shots or scooping it over the keeper's head. They played excellent cricket shots and got fantastic value on that pitch. I thought it was a fantastic batting wicket,” he said.

“So, I thought those two guys played really well and put together quite an incredible partnership,” said Buttler.