Jos Buttler cautions his team over Dharamshala outfield before facing Bangladesh in ODI World Cup 2023

Himachal Pradesh’s Dharamsala cricket ground has been the hotbed of discussions. The ground’s outfield was given an “Average” rating after the ODI World Cup 2023 game between Bangladesh and Afghanistan. The Match Officials had their say on the outfield and came up with the aforementioned rating.

Jos Buttler and his England team are set to play Bangladesh in the morning game at Dharamsala. The English skipper has given a piece of warning to his teammates about the outfield before the game on Tuesday.

England began its ODI World Cup 2023 campaign with a loss to New Zealand on Thursday. Bangladesh on the other made short work of Afghanistan during their game on Saturday to win by 7 wickets.

Jonathon Trott the former English batter is now the Afghanistan Coach. It is believed that Trott had a word with his English counterparts about the way the outfield behaved during the game on Saturday. This wasn’t lost on Jos Buttler who had his say on the issue.

Jos Buttler’s warning to his English teammates

The English skipper while speaking to the journalists said “It’s poor in my own opinion. Any time you’re talking about being careful diving or sort of being careful when you fielding, it goes against everything you want to be as a team. So that’s not ideal, the way the surface is, the outfield. But we won’t use it as an excuse, we’ll have to adapt”

The Apex Cricket Body’s consultant for pitches Andy Atkinson and match referee Javagal Srinath were happy with the ground. Despite this, there are apprehensions in the English camp ahead of the match on Tuesday.

The 33-year-old said “You want to put your body on the line and save every single run or have confidence in the field. So, it’s not as good as it should be or could be, but it’s going to be the same for both the teams and the wicket looks fantastic”. Speaking about Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler said the English all-rounder is likely to miss the Bangladesh game on Tuesday.

Bangladesh’s spin bowling coach Rangana Herath also had said his say. The former Lankan great said, “We aren’t going to restrict everything so they are going to give 100%. We will tell them to give their best. If it is good for playing international cricket. I am happy with it”.

Having the final word Jos Buttler took a slight dig at the Apex Cricket Body when he said “The powers that be are comfortable. The only thing I would question is if you are telling players not to dive and stuff. Does that question the integrity of the game? The worst-case scenario is something bad happens, but fingers crossed that doesn’t happen for both teams”