After two withdrawals for security reasons and a couple more over the past 24 hours owing to injury, England’s tour of Bangladesh is now under way with the one-day squad flying to Dhaka on Thursday under their new – but very much temporary – captain in Jos Buttler.
The 26-year-old spoke before the team’s departure from Heathrow, once again stressing he is merely keeping the seat warm for Eoin Morgan, who along with Alex Hales, pulled out following security concerns, and that the attacking philosophy the Middlesex left-hander has instilled in the side over the past 18 months will be continued.
Buttler, who named Ben Stokes as his vice-captain for the trip, will be without England’s fastest bowler, with Mark Wood joining the leader of the Test attack, Jimmy Anderson, in seeing his tour of Bangladesh end before it began because of fitness issues.
While Anderson needs more time to recover from the stress fracture to his right shoulder blade that was a feature of his summer but remains optimistic of making the Test tour to India that follows the first leg of the winter, Wood has reported further discomfort in his left ankle, the joint that required two operations last winter.
The Durham seamer’s ability to bowl in excess of 90mph, as demonstrated during his comeback in the latter half of the summer for both club and country, comes at a price and there are concerns as to how fulfilled the 26-year-old’s talent will be over the course of his career.
Buttler, who has lost a trump card for the three-match series that begins on 7 October, with Steven Finn called up as a replacement, said: “Mark has that X factor, so it’s great shame for him and very frustrating. We all know what a talent he is. Fingers crossed he can get back as soon as possible.”
On his own plans for the captaincy, the past experience for which includes one Twenty20 international and five matches at age-group level, Buttler said: “I’ll try to be genuine, to be myself. I think I view the game in a similar way to Eoin, which is try to be aggressive, the way we’ve been playing over the last 18 months.
“I have phoned Eoin to talk about the captaincy and he wants us to play in the same vein that has been successful for us: on the front foot. Eoin is very much the one-day captain and rightly so. He’s been fantastic in the job and we’ve gone from strength to strength under him. This is a short-term thing.
“We’ll ask the guys to play the same way but conditions will dictate that to an extent. It is a young squad but also experienced in terms of cricket and game awareness - that’s something we’ll need in Bangladesh.”
Bangladesh, who sit 1-1 in their three-match series with Afghanistan, boast a strong record at home of late with three defeats in their last 19 games. But it is the security situation in the country in the wake of the 1 July terrorist attack in Dhaka that has dominated the buildup to England’s tour.
“Maybe security will be in our minds for the first few days and personally, it is new to have this situation,” Buttler said. “But after a couple of days I think it will sink into the background and we can start thinking about a cricket tour.
“We want to broaden our horizons. Cricket is that universal language, we’ll be welcomed and it is fantastic for Bangladesh that we are going.”
England have announced their new white-ball contracts for one-day specialists. Buttler is one of 11 recipients of the new deals – the salaries of which are dictated by a performance ranking system – while 10 old-style Test central contracts have also been handed out for the 2016-17 period.
Stokes, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes and Joe Root, who is rested for the one-day series, are the players to earn two contracts, while Wood’s Test deal means he is now expected to re-sign for Durham having seen his previous contract with the financially-embattled county expire at the end of the season.
