Jos Buttler and Phil Salt must step up if England want to win World Cup

Before England’s first training session in Pallekele, where they face co-hosts Sri Lanka on Sunday in their opening Super Eights match on a used pitch, Bethell (who is nursing a minor finger injury that should not be a concern) spoke about the advice Buttler had given him about there being more time in a powerplay than you may think, and not to fret if a few dot balls go by at the start of his innings. Easier said than done, of course.

History suggests that a strong first-wicket pair is one of the keys to success in these events, especially for England. Craig Kieswetter and Michael Lumb, parachuted in as a new opening pair for the T20 World Cup in the Caribbean in 2010, gave their side the fastest starts of any side in the competition and laid the ground for Kevin Pietersen to finish as player of the tournament.

When England won the 50-over World Cup in 2019, Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow were a powerhouse pairing at the top of the order, delivering four century stands in seven starts, in which they averaged 82.29 (Roy missed four innings through injury but fortunately returned in time for the business end of the competition).

Buttler and Alex Hales combined majestically during the T20 World Cup triumph in Australia in 2022, Hales coming in at relatively late notice after an injury to Bairstow. In must-win games, they posted stands of 81, 75 and 170 against New Zealand, Sri Lanka and India respectively to sweep England into the final.

Roy, Bairstow and Hales set such high expectations during the golden era of the white-ball sides under Eoin Morgan that when Bairstow and Dawid Malan failed to deliver during England’s 50-over World Cup defence in India in 2023 — Malan having been assigned to open after Roy’s form collapsed before the tournament — both were widely blamed for a failed campaign. They actually made runs in the few games that were won, but neither played ODI cricket again.

Whether there is something fundamentally wrong with Salt and Buttler, or whether they have just been going through one of those bad patches that can happen in T20 cricket, will be revealed over the next seven days as England take on Sri Lanka and Pakistan in Pallekele, and New Zealand in Colombo. Perhaps the bowling they will face — more familiar and of a consistently higher standard than that of Scotland, Nepal and Italy — may bring out the best in them.

It may also not have helped that, since Brendon McCullum took charge of all England’s teams last year, there has been some shuffling of the pack at the top of the order in the short-format sides. There have been reasons for this beyond selectorial whim: Salt, for instance, missed some games through paternity leave as well as injury.

Jamie Smith and Ben Duckett were both tried as openers in T20s and ODIs before falling by the wayside, both effectively spat out by the recent Ashes debacle.

This may have had a slightly destabilising effect on Salt in particular, although it is not as though he hasn’t played some brilliant match-winning innings in the past 12 months, including a stunning 141 off 60 balls against South Africa at Old Trafford.

There is also a theory that, for all his many great feats in the white-ball arena, Buttler struggles with the heightened pressure of big tournaments. He has acknowledged that World Cups do heighten the stakes and bring different pressures. But in T20s, he actually averages more in global events.

Whichever teams thrive during the Super Eight stage and beyond, it is highly likely that the big-name players will be the ones stepping up to help them do so.

Whether England will be one of these sides feels unlikely, as things stand. They have reached the semi-finals of the past four T20 World Cups, which is an impressive record, but since they lifted the trophy in Melbourne four years ago their performances at all global white-ball events have been woefully poor.

In matches against other full-member nations, they have won only three of their past 14 outings — against Bangladesh and Pakistan at the 50-over World Cup in 2023 and West Indies at the T20 World Cup in 2024. This miserable sequence may be as much of an inhibiting factor as anything. Perhaps if they beat Sri Lanka this weekend they will finally feel capable of truly expressing themselves.

The good news is that their record against Sri Lanka is excellent. The crowd will be passionately on the side of the home team, but England can take comfort from knowing they have won all of the past 11 meetings between the sides in T20 cricket, dating back to 2016. This run includes the three T20s played at the Pallekele International Stadium around the start of this month as World Cup preparation, so the conditions should hold no fear for them.

Sri Lanka, it is true, will be buoyed by their emphatic win over Australia at this same ground last Monday, if also a little chastened by their subsequent unexpected defeat by Zimbabwe in Colombo on Thursday. At the very least, it feels like an even game.

The consequences of starting the Super Eight phase with a defeat, and England failing to reach the last four, do not really bear thinking about. He won’t show it of course, but this will be an anxious week for McCullum. After a winter of sloppy displays across all formats, he needs to show at the very least that he can actually run an orderly ship.

Sri Lanka v England

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