 "England's Jos Buttler during the press conference. Image: Reuters")
England skipper Jos Buttler has acknowledged that his captaincy could be on the line as his team faces a must-win clash against Afghanistan in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 on Wednesday. After a disappointing start to their campaign with a loss against arch-rivals Australia, England are in a precarious position where victory is a must .
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Jos Buttler’s captaincy at stake against Afghanistan
Since taking over the white-ball captaincy from Eoin Morgan in 2022, Buttler has faced mixed results. He has lost 21 out of 33 matches as England’s ODI captain. During the pre-match press conference before the Afghanistan game, Buttler admitted that his captaincy will be at stake.
“Yeah, absolutely. Any time as an England captain, you want to perform well and you want to lead your team to winning games of cricket. We haven’t been doing that enough in the recent past. As soon as you catch yourself thinking about any negative things, you just try and completely forget that and focus on all of the positive things that could go right and where you can take the team. I’m very much focused on that.”
With only two teams from each group advancing to the semi-finals of the 2025 Champions Trophy, the stakes couldn’t be higher for Buttler and his men. Having already suffered a setback against Australia, England must secure wins in both of their remaining group-stage fixtures to keep their hopes alive.
The encounter against Afghanistan on Wednesday is particularly crucial, as the fate of all four teams in the group hinges on its outcome. If both Australia and South Africa were to lose their final group-stage matches, then the winner between England and Afghanistan would secure a semi-final spot.
The match between Australia and South Africa on Tuesday got washed out due to persistent rain in Rawalpindi. Both teams were awarded a point each. South Africa and Australia are currently the favourites to qualify from Group B. Meanwhile, India and New Zealand have already secured berths in the semifinal following their wins against Pakistan and Bangladesh.