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Former England batter Mark Butcher slammed the side's batting display in both innings of their stunning third Test defeat to Sri Lanka at the Oval. After securing the series with wins in the first two Tests, the hosts were manhandled by a spirited Lankan unit at the Oval.
From a position of strength at 261/3 in their first innings, England collapsed to finish with only 325. They produced an even worse second-innings display with the willow to be bowled out for a paltry 156, setting Sri Lanka a target of only 219.
Speaking on the Wisden Cricket Podcast, Butcher felt England batted like the result was a foregone conclusion.
"I have to say England’s batting on both occasions was end of term, gung ho, slapdash, all the bad adjectives that you could come up with about the way that England played from day two onwards in the match really. So they [Sri Lanka] were aided and abetted by a team that kind of played as though the victory was a foregone conclusion and kind of went at it like that," said Butcher.
He added:
"The annoying thing about it for me is that throughout the previous five test matches England have been very prepared to be pragmatic and play game situations. And then you know once you'd earned the right to be a bit more expansive and go back to Bazball 1.0 then do it. But the lead was only 60, the ball was moving around and they kind of came out and played like they had 260 on the board instead."
Sri Lanka chased the target down with eight wickets to spare in only the 41st over to avoid a series whitewash.
"It kind of was like ‘No no we're England, we're going to attack no matter what" - Mark Butcher
Mark Butcher further slammed England's over-attacking fields during the Sri Lankan run-chase, allowing the visitors to knock off almost half the runs in the final session on Day 3.
Chasing 219, Sri Lanka raced to 94/1 in 15 overs at the close of play on the fourth day.
"Sri Lanka had knocked off 90 before you blinked and there was a naivety in all of that. The game was still there to be won but it kind of was like ‘No no we're England, we're going to attack no matter what’ and before you knew it, the game was up before stumps last night [Day 3]," said Butcher.
He continued:
"So things for them to think about, things for Ollie Pope to think about as a stand-in skipper: ‘Was I too carried away with the idea of us being sort of superior as a team that we kind of took them a bit lightly and over attacked and overdid things?’ But I'm sure and I hope that there will be a debrief that comes with this test match loss and to look at ‘Okay you know we cannot afford to kind of pretend that the other team isn't there and that we're just going to steamroll people'."
The defeat prevented England from completing a clean sweep of their home Test season after they beat the West Indies 3-0 and won the first two Sri Lanka Tests.
