The managing director of the England Men’s Team, Rob Key feels that there is ‘no disgrace’ in losing to India, who blew away Jos Buttler and co. with a 68-run victory, during the second semifinal of the Men’s T20 World Cup 2024, at the Providence Stadium in Guyana.
The defending champions came into the tournament on the back of their home T20I series win over Pakistan with a 2-0 margin, but didn’t make a great start in the campaign. Their first game over Scotland in Barbados was a washed-out affair, while they fell short in the chase against Australia.
Under Buttler, the team has been struggling in both the white-ball tournaments, managing only three games out of the nine encounters, and ended up in the seventh position in the points table. That was a horrible competition for the side, who also won the last one in 2019.
‘I don’t think it’s a bad sign when you get into a semi-final’- Rob Key
The former England batter Rob Key remarks that it’s not a bad sign that a team is qualifying for the semi-final of the tournament, but the road for the Buttler-led side hasn’t been a smooth one at all.
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With the washout result over Scotland, and a feat against the arch-rivals, the requirement for England was to earn victories in their last two games against Oman and Namibia, both by big margins, but also needed to keep an eye on the other results that would favor them.
During the press conference on virtual mode after the declaration of England’s Test squad for the first two of the three Tests in the opening red-ball series over West Indies to start the 2024 summer, Rob Key mentioned that they are neither confirming nor denying the future of both Buttler and Matthew Motts, the England white-ball coach, in some capacity.
‘In terms of the T20 World Cup, we’ve sort of moved on at this point into the Test team.’ Key remarked in the presser. ‘I am not going to rush anything on that (Future of Butler and Motts) but like we always do, we’ll start looking at what’s the best way for that white-ball team to move forward. And that will start probably in a couple of weeks’ time.’
The London-born batter noted that they would start planning for the future of this format for the team’s squad later after a few of their players return from the Caribbean.
‘All these things, when I get around to it in the next few weeks, then I’ll start working out, to be honest.’ Rob Key reflected. ‘The World T20 finished, we still had players out in the Caribbean. So we’ll let the dust settle on that and move forward from there.’
England blew away the co-host West Indies and United States of America, both co-hosts of the tournament, in their super-eight round of the event, while falling short of the chase on a good batting surface in St Lucia against South Africa, even from a powerful position.
‘I don’t think it’s a bad sign when you get into a semi-final and you’re almost slightly disappointed with that as I sort of imagine almost everyone is [including] players, coaching staff.’ Rob Key elaborated. ‘At times I thought we showed how good we were in there and at times we were inconsistent.
The 45-year-old also stretched on the fact that they have been the best team across all three formats for the last couple of years, as both South Africa and Australia are chasing them.
‘And I don’t think it’s any disgrace really to lose to India. I think they are very much the mark now. They have been the best team in world cricket across all formats for a couple of years now and everyone else is chasing them, along with Australia, and South Africa.’ Rob Key concluded. ‘I thought that was a game (the semi-final) we could have won as well, which would have put us in a slightly different position.’
For now, their focus is on the first Lord’s Test against West Indies starting on July 10, which will be the farewell international game for James Anderson.