One-day internationals have long been considered cricket’s endangered species, lacking the depth and cache of Tests or the mass-market digestibility of T20.
India played just three ODIs last year. Jos Buttler, the England captain, played none of his team’s eight matches in 2024. Joe Root, still England’s fulcrum at No 3 and close to becoming their leading run-scorer in the format, has not played since the 2023 World Cup, and just 28 of their 62 matches since the 2019 edition, without scoring a century. It has been the go-to format to rest players since 2019, which is seldom a sign of rude health, nor is the fact that the English domestic 50-over competition is a souped-up second-team tournament played under the Hundred.
Over the next month ODI cricket will have a rare stint in the sun – and Buttler cannot wait. His team take on a full-strength India in three sold-out matches this week in the build-up to the Champions Trophy which pits the best eight teams in the world against one another. Before that, South Africa, New Zealand and Pakistan will tune up with a tri-series, a concept that has essentially died in the last 20 years but seems the perfect vehicle to enliven ODIs.
“I’ve always really enjoyed 50-over cricket,” said Buttler. “It’s been pushed towards the margins in recent years, with the way the scheduling is with the rise of T20 and franchise cricket. I still think if you talk to guys about winning a World Cup, they’d probably say a 50-over World Cup ahead of a T20 World Cup at the moment.
“I think that’s down to the history of it. It’s a longer, harder challenge to win it. The last World Cup, India fell at the final hurdle, but they won 10 games, so it’s a great effort to go that long. The T20 World Cup is a bit shorter. In T20 one guy can have a day out and win a game but in ODIs you normally need a few more guys to contribute to a win.
“Maybe my era, the history of 50-over cricket. I always think of the 1999 World Cup being something I watched as a kid. Maybe for the 20-year-olds now it’s all about T20 World Cups.”
Jacob Bethell, 21, is in England’s XI for Thursday’s opener, for which Jofra Archer is fit despite a nasty cut on his bowling hand. Bethell, the 24-year-old Jamie Smith (who misses the first two matches with a calf injury), and vice-captain Harry Brook are part of the generation Buttler is speaking about, growing up on T20. That said, it is hard to believe they were not inspired by the 2019 World Cup in which Buttler played a central role.
They will have to learn how to bat in 50-over cricket on the job, because of the scheduling squeeze. Buttler and Root were the beneficiaries of the county 40-over competition that ran from 2009 to 2013, their formative years. That gave them experience of the rhythms of ODIs, but 10 overs fewer encouraged them to get a wiggle on against lesser bowling, too. Both would be straight into England’s greatest ODI side of all time.
‘50-overs mirrors a nice gap between Tests and T20s’
Buttler will bat at No 5 here, and his message to his full-strength squad is to take their time, reminding his batsmen that there are hundreds to be scored. Five of Buttler’s 11 ODI centuries have come from No 6 or below. England have been attempting a full-throttle brand of T20 cricket but will need to locate a low-risk cruising speed that maximises a 50-over innings.
“Sometimes you forget how much time you have,” he said. “Even just for a little period. You get those interesting little intricacies in 50-over cricket, where maybe just for a few overs the bat dominates the ball [or vice versa]. Even I feel it, having played so much T20 cricket recently, you sometimes want to run before you can walk. You always have more time than you think.
“I think 50 overs, it mirrors a nice gap between the Tests and the T20s. It’s long enough to test you that you do need to still bat properly in some situations. But obviously you need to be powerful and aggressive and able to score at a certain rate.
“The 50-over format really suits everyone in the squad. Ben Duckett, the way he’s been playing in Test cricket and ODIs, it’s exactly the same. It’s the perfect blueprint for batting long and getting big hundreds. That’s one thing that is really exciting about ODI cricket, from numbers one to six, you have the opportunity to go and score hundreds. In T20 cricket it’s difficult to score three figures from outside the top three. I am looking forward to that.”
Buttler laughed when asked about India’s full-strength squad. “It’s nice that Abhishek Sharma’s not in that team, isn’t it?” he said, referring to the 24-year-old prodigy who flayed England to all parts of Mumbai in his fifth-T20 135 on Sunday. Instead, more familiar names replace him, such as Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.
“That’s the way to keep 50-over cricket relevant,” said Buttler. “Pit your best teams against each other and put your best players out there.
Amen to that – and the next month should be a good start.
England XI for first ODI
Phil Salt (wk), Ben Duckett, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jos Buttler, Liam Livingstone, Jacob Bethell, Brydon Carse, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Saqib Mahmood.
