T20 cricket is ruthless; only thing in our control is to learn and get better: Jos Buttler

Jos Buttler. Pic/AFP

England white-ball captain Jos Buttler feels all the competing teams in the ICC T20 World Cup have to come to terms with the fact that, at the end of the day, it is a ruthless format where one loss is enough to eliminate the best side, and added that the only thing in a team's control is to "learn" and get "better".

England also learned the lesson in the most painful way last year when, after playing some amazing games under Eoin Morgan's captaincy, they got eliminated in the semifinal in the 2021 edition of the T20 World Cup by New Zealand. Asked, how does he prepare himself and his team mentally for such kind of a competition, Buttler said, there is no choice but to accept the fickleness of the format.

"Yeah, I just think you have to accept it's really -- as (New Zealand skipper) Kane (Williamson) mentioned, it's a fierce competition. There's some great players here, especially in T20 cricket, one person can take the game away from you. Very much just prepare for the next game. We've had good preparation. We look forward to this tournament and don't try and read too much into past tournaments or things. We try and learn and get better and improve every day, and look forward to starting this competition in the next week."

England are coming into the competition having defeated hosts Australia in the T20I series recently and they would derive plenty of confidence following their identical eight-run wins in the two matches. The third and final match of the series in Canberra was abandoned.

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But Buttler, who took charge of the side after Morgan retired from all forms of cricket recently said, the hosts will still be at an advantage going into the tournament despite teams now far more familiar with the conditions Down Under.

"Yeah, I think T20 is one of those games, as you mentioned, can be unpredictable. I think history tells you that generally the host nations are slight favourites in big tournaments, I think, especially when lots of people have played in Australia in those conditions, but of course no one is going to know the conditions or be as accustomed to them as the Australian team and the reigning champions, as well. You'd have to pick them out probably as the favourites for the tournament.

"But as mentioned, T20 can be unpredictable. There's lots of very, very good teams here, very good players who will all have a say throughout this World Cup," added Buttler.

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