Jos Buttler has stepped down as England’s white-ball captain after his team’s Champions Trophy 2025 group-stage exit on Friday. Jos Buttler‘s decision has come on the eve of the team’s final league stage match against South Africa, to be held at the National Stadium in Karachi on Saturday.
Jos Buttler has resigned as England’s white-ball captain after the team’s disastrous show at the 2025 Champions Trophy. Buttler, 34, said that Saturday’s Group B game against South Africa will be his last as skipper. England were knocked out of the ongoing ICC event in Pakistan and Dubai, after losing to Australia and then enduring a shock defeat against Afghanistan two evenings ago.
After the loss, Jos Buttler was grilled by Michael Atherton on the mic during the post-match presentation ceremony. Jos Buttler himself looks unsure about his future as captain, culminating in the decision Friday evening.
Jos Buttler’s career as captain for England
Buttler took over as England’s captain after the retirement of the World Cup-winning captain, Eoin Morgan, in June of 2022. Five months into his leadership ,Jos Buttler enjoyed the highest of highs when he led England to the T20 World Cup win in Australia. However, with that, England and Buttler’s downfall began in ODIs and T20Is, with the team failing in three consecutive ICC events.
Jos Buttler’s England finished seventh in the 2023 ODI World Cup with just three wins from nine games, ended as semi-finalists after losing to India in the 2024 T20 World Cup and before suffering the Champions Trophy low.
Jos Buttler took over the reigns of England’s white-ball sides following Eoin Morgan’s retirement in 2022 and instantly won the T20 World Cup in Australia later that year. But results in the two formats nosedived thereafter as England were knocked out in the group stages of the 2023 ODI World Cup. They then crashed out at the semifinal stage in the defence of their T20 crown, losing convincingly to India in Guyana.
Amid the dwindling fortunes, England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) got Brendon McCullum to coach the white-ball sides starting 2025 in addition to his Test match responsibilities. But his partnership with Jos Buttler didn’t result in any quick fixes as England lost nine of the 10 white-ball games since the turn of the year.
While he will likely go down as England’s best white-ball batter, Jos Buttler’s ODI form, like that of the side he led, had been on a sharp downturn over the last 18 months. He averages 26.40 in his last 21 innings, with a strike rate of just over 100 – down from 115.97 over his ODI career. He managed starts in each of the two games this Champions Trophy, coming into the middle order while England had a platform to build off, but got out for 23 off 21 and 38 off 42.
In all, Jos Buttler captained England in 44 ODIs and 51 T20Is, winning 18 and 26 games respectively. He has the second-worst win-loss ratio in ODIs for any England captain with a minimum of 15 games led. Leading in 43 ODIs, Jos Buttler managed 18 wins besides 25 defeats. Jos Buttler led the T20I side in 51, second only to Morgan (72), registering 26 wins and 22 losses.
Jos Buttler shares his views on his stepping down as skipper for England
Jos Buttler on Friday stepped down as England’s white-ball captain following his team’s Champions Trophy 2025 group-stage exit. Buttler announced his decision on the eve of the team’s final league stage match against South Africa, confirming that the match at the National Stadium in Karachi on Saturday will be his last as the leader of the white-ball setups.
After suffering a defeat to Australia in their group-stage opener last week, Buttler’s men suffered a harrowing defeat to Afghanistan in Lahore. England came up eight runs short as Afghanistan put on an inspired performance to pile on 325 runs on the back of opener Ibrahim Zadran’s 177 and held their nerves to see off the 2019 World Cup winners. The loss marked England’s seventh successive loss under Jos Buttler’s captaincy starting from last month’s tour to India where they were blanked 3-0 in the ODIs and lost the preceding T20I leg 4-1.
While Jos Buttler’s rise to the full-time white-ball captaincy after Eoin Morgan’s retirement was met with immediate success with the T20 World Cup 2022 triumph in Australia, the Champions Trophy is the third ICC tournament in as many years where England have failed to reach the finals. The team managed only three wins in the 2023 ODI World Cup and lost to India in the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup in the Caribbean last year.
“It’s the right decision for me, it’s the right decision for the team, and hopefully somebody else can come in and work closely alongside Baz to take the team back to where it needs to be,” Buttler said in a press conference on Friday.
“It was quite clear that this tournament was going to be important results-wise for my captaincy,” he added.
“With Brendon (McCullum) coming in (as white-ball coach) only recently, I was really excited to work closely alongside him and hope for a very quick turnaround and take the team forward, but it’s not worked out that way. It feels like it’s the right time for me and also for the team to have a change,” Buttler remarked.
Jos Buttler has decided to stand down as England’s white-ball captain at the end of the team’s campaign in the ongoing Champions Trophy 2025. The 34-year-old announced his decision in Karachi ahead of the team’s last league game, against South Africa.