England in ODIs under Buttler: a failed attempt at Morgan's prototype

When Jos Buttler took over England's full-time ODI captaincy from Eoin Morgan in July 2022, the idea would have been to continue with the methods that had transformed England's white-ball cricket. What transpired, though, was quite different.

After crashing out in the group stages of the 2015 World Cup, England won 69.9% of their completed ODIs under Morgan. That run included winning the 2019 World Cup. For better understanding, that time period will be referred to as "Morgan's era" in this piece.

Meanwhile, under Buttler's full-time captaincy, England's win percentage nearly halved to 35.6%. The batting fell off a cliff, from averaging 41.50 under Morgan, the second-best in his era, to 30.10, the third-lowest among Full Member teams. The bowling average and economy rates shot up too.

Under Buttler, England even had the lowest batting average (28.46) among the 12 Full Members when playing aggressive strokes. They lost the most wickets on attacking shots (241), while their strike rate (253.08) was eighth on the list.

During Morgan's captaincy until the 2019 World Cup, England scored 4.7 boundaries per wicket. Under Buttler, they lost a wicket every 3.4 boundaries.

The personnel also changed between Morgan and Buttler's sides. Among the main core, England replaced Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow with Phil Salt and Ben Duckett, who bat in similar vein. Morgan and Ben Stokes, meanwhile, were replaced by Harry Brook and Liam Livingstone, both more attacking batters than their predecessors. Stokes did play 12 ODIs under Buttler since July 2022, but he was wasn't a regular member of the side. In the Morgan era defined above, though, Stokes played 66 ODIs.

Meanwhile, Buttler himself, and Joe Root, were common across both core teams.

Under Morgan, Root played 89 out of England's 98 ODIs. Under Buttler, Root featured in only 25 out of 47 fixtures. Root was the highest scorer for England in the Morgan era, and also had the best average (58.75).

Overall, barring Duckett, no other England batter, including Buttler, has been able to match the level of their predecessor, thus downgrading their batting numbers. And barring Root and Buttler, each of the aforementioned batters in the Buttler era was dismissed 50% more times while playing an aggressive stroke.

In the bowling department, Morgan had two key components - Adil Rashid as the lone spinner, and the pace bowlers, who picked plenty of wickets off the back-of-a-length and short deliveries.

In the spin attack, Morgan paired Rashid with Moeen Ali. Buttler, though, had Livingstone accompanying Rashid. Across both eras, there isn't much difference in Rashid's numbers - be it economy rate or average. However, the spinners around Rashid were much less threatening.

It also hampered England because of the cycle of ICC events. When Morgan was captain, both the 2017 Champions Trophy and the 2019 World Cup took place in England. Morgan's team played only 15.30% of their games in Asia, and were thus able to hide the second or third-choice spinners. In the Buttler era, both ICC ODI events happened in Asia - the 2023 World Cup in India and the ongoing Champions Trophy in Pakistan - and England ended up playing 38.30% of their fixtures in Asia. Hence, Buttler's secondary spinners were exposed a lot more when they needed someone more penetrative.

The pace bowlers, under Morgan, bowled 35.77% of their deliveries on a back of a length or short, picking 190 of their 500 wickets (38%). Buttler took it a step above, with his quicks bowling 44.40% deliveries in similar areas. But the shorter they bowled, the more they drifted apart from the results in the Morgan era.

During Buttler's time, the mean average for back-of-a-length and short deliveries by pace bowlers only involving Full Member teams was 30.33. England, at 37.02, conceded nearly seven runs per wicket extra than the mean value. Playing more in Asia could have been a factor, but England didn't seem to alter their plans either.

Under Morgan, there was also more consistency and stability in England's selection. Morgan's England played only 36 players across 103 ODIs. Meanwhile, Buttler's England featured a staggering 42 players in just 47 matches.

The inconsistency affected England's fast bowling the most. Chris Woakes, Liam Plunkett and Stokes formed the core of Morgan's pace attack, and played both the Champions Trophy and the World Cup.

Under Buttler, there was never a core of seam bowling. None of the three bowlers who bowled the most in his tenure - Sam Curran, David Willey and Woakes - were in contention for the Champions Trophy this year. Instead, Jofra Archer, their primary pace bowler for the tournament, is fourth in terms of body of work (due to injuries). Brydon Carse, Mark Wood and Gus Atkinson occupy the sixth, seventh and eighth spots, respectively. England also had to rebuild their pace attack after the 2023 World Cup.

When Morgan was the captain, England invested all their energy towards winning their first World Cup. With that box ticked, England dwindled under Buttler, with inconsistency in selection due to player unavailability and workload management, and various failed attempts at replicating Morgan's prototype.