Jos Buttler has had ‘baptism of fire’ as white-ball captain – Matthew Mott

Matthew Mott admits Jos Buttler has had a “baptism of fire” as England’s white-ball captain, as South Africa stand by to keep the pressure on.

It is little more than a fortnight since the retirement of World Cup-winning skipper Eoin Morgan saw Buttler promoted to the top job and faced with a busy first month in the role.

His side are halfway through a packed July schedule of 12 games in 24 days and were left empty handed by India, who took 2-1 series wins in the Twenty20 and one-day contests.

Defeat in the 50-over format was a rarity for a team who had learned to dominate in home conditions under Morgan, with just two other losses since 2015, but India showed why they are already favourites to succeed England as world champions in their own conditions next year.

The fixture list leaves little leeway to pore over the performances, with the first ODI against the Proteas taking place at Chester-le-Street on Tuesday.

Mott, who is also new to the job following his appointment as limited-overs head coach in May, said: “There’s definitely been areas we can improve. We don’t have long to go into it in too much detail but it has been disappointing.

“I think ‘hard work’ is a good summary. We definitely haven’t played our best cricket, there’s no shying away from that. Jos’ leadership has been a baptism of fire. We know we’ve been off in a couple of departments and India made us pay heavily.

“But we have an opportunity to turn that around against another very strong opposition. We’ve only been together a few weeks as captain and coach and are developing a great rapport.”

We definitely haven't played our best cricket, there's no shying away from that. Jos' leadership has been a baptism of fire- Matthew Mott

While Morgan has exited