Jos Buttler has been hit by a 'perfect storm'... so what can he do about it?

“A perfect storm,” was Joe Root’s view of the combination of a sudden transition to Jos Buttler's ascension to the leadership combined with 12 matches in 24 days against two different opponents, zigzagging across the country with barely any time to prepare and playing on pitches unusual in England for white-ball cricket. What specifically has gone wrong and what can England do about it with a World T20 coming up and World Cup to defend 12 months later? 

Eoin Morgan’s abrupt retirement caught England by surprise. “Not this quickly, I won't lie,” said Matthew Mott at the weekend about when he thought he would have to rebuild with a new captain.

Morgan is an ever-present figure, too. He is a natural on camera and Sky have promoted him to the front of its coverage quickly but it was odd to see him conduct the toss interviews in Durham, underlining how hard it will be for Buttler to step out of his shadow. You half expected Morgan to call heads instead of Buttler.

“Now he's on the other side of the fence, he has a really good perspective and will give us some good feedback,” said Mott. 

England’s World Cup win and ODI overhaul was based on three theories of batting: going hard in the first 10 overs, rotating the strike, and batting at six-an-over against spin in the middle overs and targeting the boundary.

By all three metrics England are down this year, significantly. Their average powerplay score is 47 for two, lower than any year since 2015. Their boundary percentage is 9.42, the first time it has gone below 11.98 since 2015 and their average against spin in the middle overs has plummeted to 26, whereas it was 86 in the World Cup winning year.

Buttler averaged 41 up to the end of the 2019 World Cup and 51 in the year