Jonathan Agnew on Jos Buttler's future as England captain

From Edgbaston in 1999, a home tournament, to Adelaide in 2015, losing to Bangladesh, I've covered many embarrassing England exits in global events. Each time felt like rock bottom, seemingly impossible to get worse. Wednesday's loss to Afghanistan in the Champions Trophy was another reenactment of those dark days, highlighting the team's continued struggles.

England's white-ball game has gone backwards since winning the World Cup twice in 2019 (Cricket World Cup) and 2022 (T20 World Cup). Now is the time to plan for the future again, as relieving Jos Buttler of the captaincy would be a sensible move. The team needs a fresh perspective and a renewed focus on long-term success.

Buttler has always been a very good man to deal with. He won the 2022 T20 World Cup as captain, but even though he says he enjoys the role, the captaincy doesn't seem natural to him. He once said he practiced smiling in the mirror. After Wednesday's loss, he told the media that he had to consider whether he was "part of the problem or part of the solution," which sounded like someone with scrambled thoughts, indicating the pressure he's under.

Buttler will be 37 by the time the next 50-over World Cup comes around in 2027. There's no reason he can't stay in the team as a player until then, especially if relinquishing the captaincy lightens his load, restores his smile, and returns him to the destructive batter we know him to be. This could allow him to focus on his batting and contribute more effectively to the team's overall performance.

Installing a new leader now, most likely Harry Brook, would give him ample time to adjust before the event in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Namibia. It feels like the right choice. To his credit, Buttler actually started this tournament with the right message. He said his batters needed to learn to change gears when necessary, and to downshift when necessary. The problem is, only Ben Duckett in the loss to Australia, and Joe Root with his 120 against Afghanistan, have shown that ability, highlighting a lack of adaptability in the batting lineup.

Phil Salt and Jamie Smith's dismissals were awful on Wednesday. Salt's shot – a lame-duck swipe that was bowled – was mind-boggling, while Smith left me speechless. He'd impressed in his first nine Tests since debuting last summer, but to charge down the pitch to the first ball of spin was inexplicable in this innings. Batting in the top three on flat batting tracks in 50-over cricket is a privilege, and a good player should be able to get himself in and churn out big scores. Instead, Smith played a poor shot against Australia, getting caught at mid-on, and then got caught attempting a slog against Afghanistan, raising serious doubts about whether he is the right man for the No. 3 spot.

This is also the latest example of England's over-reliance on T20 thinking. Take Jofra Archer. In England's two defeats – games they should have won – he tried back-of-the-hand balls, slow balls, and all the variations. This wasn't T20 cricket, it was 50-over cricket. Pace is important, but it must be allied with accuracy, as Azmatullah Omarzai showed. He's not express and doesn't have all the tricks, basically, but he ran in, bowled accurately, and bowled to his field – something England have been struggling to do.

While they've largely picked their best players for this event, Buttler and coach Brendon McCullum have put all their eggs in the basket of pace – picking Archer and Mark Wood in both games, and replacing Brydon Carse with Jamie Overton for the second – but as an attack, it has never looked right. Add to that the fact that England have always cut corners by only picking four frontline bowlers, using Joe Root and Liam Livingstone to make up the numbers, and it's clear that mistakes have been made in team selection.

You need five proper bowlers in a Cricket World Cup squad, so the management must take some responsibility, but we come back again to the fact that England cricket doesn't take 50-over cricket seriously. All these problems – failing to lay a platform with the bat, and being unable to maintain consistency with the ball – are because the players aren't used to playing this format of the game. The next generation of players aren't playing this format because the domestic competition [One-Day Cup] has been downgraded, and you can bet your bottom dollar that when the summer comes around, many of the key players won't feature in the games against West Indies in May and June, and South Africa in September, because they'll be wrapped in cotton wool preparing for the Ashes. Unless that changes, I don't think we should be surprised by these results.

As for Brook, he's had a poor start to 2025, averaging 16.90 in 10 50-over and 20-over games – but we know he can play. There aren't too many options to replace Buttler, but Brook seems the most credible. He's done it before, in the five-match series against Australia last September, which will at least have got him thinking about captaincy on the field. We don't know how good a captain he'll be, but those close to the camp speak highly of his cricket brain. That said, this England team always bigs each other up, so it's hard to know. Ultimately, it can only be proven by results and performances, but if Brook does take over, he'll have a good run-up to 2027.

Buttler still has a future as a player. He can still make his mark.