Jos Buttler says England simply weren’t good enough on day two of the Third Specsavers Test as a Hardik Pandya-inspired India dominated at Trent Bridge.
The Indian bowlers, led by Pandya, used the overcast conditions to their fullest as England collapsed from 54-0 to 161 all out, giving the tourists a 168-run first innings lead.
Buttler, who top scored with 39, praised the Indian bowlers for how they bowled in the conditions and admitted England simply weren’t up to the task.
“Credit to India who bowled well and got the ball moving and we weren’t able to deal with that,” said Buttler.
“That was very disappointing after a really good start where we picked up the early wickets and got to fifty without loss.
“We’ve seen when the conditions favour the bowlers how hard it can be for the batsmen in this series and India bowled very well today.”
India enjoyed arguably their best day of the series, as they look to fight back from 2-0 in the series, whilst England produced another alarming batting display, a trend that is becoming far too frequent.
Buttler says the side know that hard work is needed to stop the loss of wickets in clusters, and knows England will stop at nothing to iron out their failures.
“It takes a lot of character to come back from tough places like this, it has been happening too often and we will be working hard to eradicate these collapses so we can get to where we want to be,” said Buttler.
“It comes down to hard work and being disciplined in practice. We know it is not going to be easy, this is Test cricket after all.
“It was always going to be a competitive series, they are the number one ranked side in the world for a reason.
“When one side has had the momentum in the series so far it has been hard for the other side to wrestle it back but it is not for lack of trying.
“We still believe we can get something from this game. If we didn’t there would be no point turning up tomorrow.”
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