England's next fixture is against South Africa on March 1 in Lahore.
Jos Buttler has stepped down from the captaincy role after England’s early exit from the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 in Pakistan. England lost two consecutive games against Australia and Afghanistan despite posting 300+ scores on the board. The keeper-batter will lead his side for the final time against South Africa in a dead rubber on March 1 in Lahore. He believes he has “reached the end of the road.”
“It’s the right decision for me, it’s the right decision for the team, and hopefully somebody else can come in and work closely alongside [Brendon McCullum] to take the team back to where it needs to be,” he said in a press conference on Friday (February 28).
After the 2022 T20 World Cup win, Buttler has captained a tough England side concerning their declining form. After the 2024 T20 World Cup, Matthew Mott lost his job as England’s coach. Buttler feared his day would arrive for him too if the team didn’t improve. Recently, the team faced the brunt of an embarrassing tour in India as they won just once in eight games (five T20Is and three ODIs). The 34-year-old feels this change in captaincy is happening at the right time.
“With Brendon coming in only recently, I was really excited to work closely alongside him and hope for a very quick turnaround and take the team forward, but it’s not worked out that way. It feels like it’s the right time for me and also for the team to have a change,” Buttler explained.
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Buttler is famous for his exploits with the bat. As a captain, he has led England in 44 ODIs and 51 T20Is. The side has won 18 50-over games with a win percentage of 41.86. In T20Is, Buttler has a better record with 26 wins at a fantastic 50.98% rate. He’s the third captain to take England to victory in an ICC tournament.
Coach Brendon McCullum who joined the team for the white-ball format earlier this year expressed his thoughts over Buttler’s decision.
“I feel incredibly sad for Jos. We’ve all seen over the last couple of years how much he has invested in captaining his country and trying to get the very best out of those guys around him. People forget he won the World Cup a couple of years ago and that can never be taken away from him. He’s done a significant job, often without his best players available, so it is incredibly unselfish from Jos to step aside and to leave the post to someone else. He is still a huge player for us moving forward and I’m sure we’ll look at ways to get the best out of him so he has maximum impact as well,” McCullum said.
While Ben Stokes is the Test captain of England, the team may appoint another skipper for the shorter formats of the game. Harry Brook, the vice-captain of the ongoing tournament, would be a likely choice apart from the experienced Ben Duckett, Liam Livingstone, and Joe Root.
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