England captain Jos Buttler made a scathing assessment of the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) Stadium outfield, terming it as “poor” ahead of their World Cup match against Bangladesh here on Tuesday.
Buttler’s observation came after Afghanistan coach Jonathan Trott too had expressed his displeasure over the outfield at the venue after their match against Bangladesh.
While Trott was a bit circumspect in his views, Buttler gave a more candid opinion of his concerns.
“Yeah, a few (concerns) I think,” Butter began during his pre-match media conference here on Monday, before opening up on the state of the field.
“It’s poor in my own opinion. I think any time you’re sort of talking about being careful diving or sort of being careful when you’re fielding, it sort of goes against everything you want to be as a team.
“You know you want to dive through our houses to save a run. So, that’s obviously not ideal, the way the surface is, the outfield. The outfield is different to when we played here in the IPL,” Buttler held forth.
Several players slipped on the HPCA Stadium outfield while chasing the ball during the match between Afghanistan and Bangladesh. The ICC had given the outfield an
average rating after the match between Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
About the match, Buttler said Ben Stokes, who is recuperating from a hip niggle, might not start against Bangladesh. The all-rounder did not play in England’s tournament opener too.
