World Cup 'pressure and consequences' make 250-300 scores less likely - Buttler

As much as 300 was being tipped as a barrier to be broken repeatedly in the ongoing T20 World Cup, the "pressures and the consequences" are different in such major tournaments as compared to bilateral cricket, according to Jos Buttler.

Forget 300, the 2026 T20 World Cup has seen the 200-mark being breached only twice so far in 10 games, and only once by a Full Member side when South Africa put up 213 in Ahmedabad against Canada, which is the highest team total of this tournament until now. The other occasion came earlier the same day, when Scotland piled up 207 against World Cup debutants Italy in a day game in Kolkata.

"Yeah, I think 300 and 250, they are kind of outliers anyway still in the game, they are not that common," Buttler said in Mumbai a day before England's second game, against West Indies on Wednesday. "They are more common than they have been but it's not like every game is a game like that and I think going around India and having played here a lot before, there may be games that might play out that way.

"But there will also be tighter, closer games and I think you see in bilateral cricket ... the pressures and the consequences of the result are a little bit different. And I think generally in World Cups you see teams play the percentages a little bit more, maybe not risk as much. I might be wrong on that but I think that's a general thing."

Over the years, T20 World Cups have seen much lower scoring rates compared to the more hard-hitting T20 leagues. Even though 250 is breached regularly now in the IPL - on the same grounds which will host games in this T20 World Cup - the global tournament had seen only 18 scores of 200 or more in 317 matches until this edition. IPL 2025 alone had 52 totals above 200 in 73 completed games.

Buttler cited that World Cups - whether 50-over or T20 - were a different proposition because of what was at stake, as well as conditions and start times that sometimes differ from bilateral games. One such example was the 2019 ODI World Cup, staged in England and Wales. Even though England had breached 400 a few times in the lead up to that home World Cup campaign, the tournament ended with 241 being scored by both England and New Zealand in a final for the ages.

"I remember in 2019, going into that 50-over World Cup, everyone was talking about 350, 400 scores, the flat wickets in England," Buttler said. "But then it turned out, with 11 o'clock starts, powerplay bowling was the key thing and the final we played in 240 played 240, that kind of cricket."

Buttler's captaincy successor Harry Brook said a day before this T20 World Cup kicked off that there are "plenty of grounds in India" where there could be scores of 300-plus. Butter is no stranger to those five venues in India - Ahmedabad, Chennai, Delhi and Kolkata, as well as Mumbai - having played every IPL season since 2016, the year in which he also featured in the T20 World Cup in India. In this edition, England have their first two matches in Mumbai - Buttler's home ground in his first two IPL seasons - where the pitch is known for its red soil that aids pace and bounce but provides a bigger benefit for the batters with its short boundaries.

England were run close in the opening game against Nepal when their total of 184 was nearly chased down in the last over in front of a raucous crowd. That game, and the one played there on the previous night between India and USA, saw plenty of value for slower deliveries, both with the new and old ball. USA's Shadley van Schalkwyk used the lack of pace to perfection in his triple-wicket sixth over to help keep India to 161 and less than 24 hours later, Sam Curran and Jofra Archer used the slower cutters regularly to try and restrict Nepal in the death overs.

"Not necessarily surprised," Buttler said of the Wankhede surface in their first game, "I think we can have good bounce here and the red soil can give a bit of spin, it was a little bit tacky. Playing at 3 o'clock was interesting, working out, would the wicket improve or would it get worse? It [was] a used wicket obviously. But generally here, coming into the evening games, batting second can be an advantage.

"We play a night game against the West Indies, so the conditions probably won't change as much and that 3 o'clock into 5-6 o'clock I think is quite a tricky period. But that's the beauty of the game of cricket, you've got to turn up, read the conditions as quickly as you can and adapt and play. You've just got to play to win on that day, you don't need to worry about par scores or winning scores, you just need one more run than the opposition on that day, on that given surface and that's the most important thing in tournament cricket especially."