T20 World Cup: New era for ‘dangerous, very ready’ England, says Jos Buttler | Cricket News

PERTH: Skipper Jos Buttler ushered in a new era on Friday England and warned that his “dangerous” side were “very ready” for their title shot at the Twenty20 World Cup.
England, who are favorites along with hosts and holders Australia, begin their campaign against Afghanistan in Perth on Saturday.
Buttler succeeded Eoin Morgan as England’s white-ball captain in June and led his side to a 2-0 T20 series win over Australia and a World Cup-leading win over Pakistan.
“We are in a good place. We have had very good matches in the last 10 games and played very good cricket,” said the wicketkeeper-batsman, striking a lively tone.
“On the eve of the tournament we are very ready.”

Despite England’s abysmal form – including a series win in Pakistan – 32-year-old Buttler dismissed the titles.
“No, far from it, to be honest. I think we are a dangerous team, we have very talented players who can win matches on their own and that is a big thing in T20 cricket,” he said .
“If you had to pick one (favourite) then it has to be Australia in their own conditions and being reigning champions.”
England, who won the T20 title in 2010, lost fast bowler Reece Topley to an ankle injury with Tymal Mills coming in as a replacement.

Buttler leads the batting along with Dawid Malan, Ben Stokes, Liam Livingstone and Moeen Ali. On the bowling front, David Willey and Sam Curran are in good form.
“I mentioned it a lot to the players, but it’s very much a new era for the England white-ball team,” Buttler said.
“A lot of them played in the last era, but it’s a lot about looking out for this group now.
“Not spending too much energy looking backwards. I think it’s very important to be that forward-looking team that talks a lot about the future, and that starts with tomorrow.”
England missed out on the final in the United Arab Emirates last year after going to New Zealand in the semi-finals and Buttler said the shortest format of cricket was “brutal”.

“Just how relentless the format is and how much importance there is in every single game,” Buttler said, reflecting on what they learned from last year’s World Cup.
England start this time against Afghanistan and are also in a group with Australia and last year’s beaten finalists, New Zealand.
Asian champions Sri Lanka are also in it after making it through the opening round. The group is the more difficult of the two in the Super 12 stage.
“South Africa didn’t go through from our group that won four out of five games (last year), so it’s a very difficult format,” says Buttler.
“It’s incredibly competitive and we know it, we expect it.”