With England set to play in the first match of the World Cup 2023, the skipper Jos Buttler denies the defending champion title before entering the tournament in India.
Jos Buttler denies Defending Champions tag
England was the champions in the previous edition of the World Cup in 2019. They clinched the World Cup title for the first time after defeating New Zealand in the finals. With ICC warmup games concluded, the World Cup captains meet was organized on October 4 at Ahmedabad.
On this occasion, the England Skipper denies the defending champion title and wants to enter the ODI World Cup in the same position as other teams. England side has been well positioned as they completed the ODI series against New Zealand with a victory 3-1 last month.
When asked about their position to defend the title he said, “We’re not trying to defend anything,” he said. “We’re trying to go there and win a World Cup. We’re in exactly the same position as every other team,” on the pre match conference.
“I want us to attack, so I don’t like the word ‘defending’… it may be a motivation for certain teams when they’ve been in that position, but not for us. I have said lots of times, I don’t see us as defending champions,” he said.
“You can’t recreate something, or hold onto it forever. It’s all about something new. It’s fantastic to be champions and the reigning champions, and I won’t say we’ve left that behind completely because it’s a nice place to be. But I do feel like you’ve given that trophy back now. It’s done. It’s about trying to create something new.
“We must be hungry to try to do it again and try to be focused on something different. Stuff in the past can be nice reference points: you talk about experience, and I never believed in it as a young player. I thought you could either do it, or you couldn’t. But certainly now, as an older player, there are times that things happen and they are nice to refer back to.”
“Getting here today and seeing that trophy again, all the plaques with the different teams all the way around it… the history and the legacy of the tournament still rings true. The landscape of cricket is changing – bilateral cricket is having its own challenges – but coming here to India, which is the No. 1 place in the world for cricket, and being at an ODI World Cup, it certainly gets you excited.”
“Being fifth in the rankings, maybe there are a few asterisks against that. We don’t read too much into it: we have a lot of belief in our side. I don’t think anyone would want to play us, or enjoy playing us.”
“We’re all dreamers… we are a team who like being in that position of having expectations on us. It’s a great place to be: I’d rather be there than a non-fancied side that nobody thinks has a chance. We’ve got some of the best players in the world in our team – that gives us a great chance,” he concluded.
The match between England and New Zealand is a replica of the World Cup 2019 finals. Despite both sides having key players sidelined due to injuries, captains are looking forward to clinching victory in the World Cup Openers.
This match will be the 11th meeting on World Cup premises as both sides have five victories each. The match will kickstart at 2:00 PM IST with the toss taking place at 1:30 PM at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad.
