Jos Buttler admits his England captaincy is on the line in Champions Trophy clash with Afghanistan – with his side facing elimination if they lose

Jos Buttler admits his England captaincy is on the line for Wednesday’s must-win Champions Trophy match against Afghanistan.

A washout between Australia and South Africa on Tuesday has turned the Group B contest at the Gaddafi Stadium into an eliminator – the loser will be knocked out of the eight-team competition.

For Buttler though, even more is riding on the controversial fixture, having survived a white-ball review last summer which resulted in Matthew Mott being sacked as coach.

Asked if he felt the stakes were high personally, Buttler, 34, said: ‘Yeah, absolutely. Any time, as an England captain, you want to perform, and to perform well, and you want to lead your team to winning games of cricket. We haven’t been doing that enough in the recent past.

‘But as soon as you catch yourself thinking about any negative things, you just try to forget that and focus on all the positive things that could go right and where you can take the team. I’m very much focused on that.’

Rob Key, the ECB’s managing director of men’s cricket, paired Buttler with Brendon McCullum in the hope that some of the Test team’s gold dust would rub off, but four straight defeats this calendar year has taken his overall record to 21 in the 33 one-day internationals he has overseen since replacing Eoin Morgan at the helm. One of those was against Afghanistan during a disastrous 50-over world title defence in India in late 2023.

If Buttler’s side lose the Champions Trophy clash, they will be eliminated from the competition

Buttler and Co must win their last two matches but are in a dire run of form in one-day cricket

Such a run has deflected some of the attention away from recent calls from Westminster to boycott this fixture, with Buttler focusing on the need to not only win this match but also Saturday’s meeting with the South Africans in Karachi to make it to the knockout stages.

With Brydon Carse ruled out of the tournament due to a toe wound, Jamie Overton will come into the XI that lost to Australia here last weekend. The pitch is two strips across from the one upon which the Aussies chased down 352 – a record target n a global competition – and although Jonathan Trott, the former England batsman who coaches Afghanistan, compared conditions to Headingley given Monday’s cloud cover and dipping temperatures, the mercury is forecast to hit the high 20s for the match itself.

Afghanistan are set to field eight of the side that sealed a comfortable 69-run win in Delhi 16 months ago, with their main threats being spinners Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi, two players who recently spoke out against females being barred from education and medicine by the ruling Taliban.

Since then, nearly 200 British MPs petitioned for the ECB to boycott the Group B fixture in protest at Afghanistan’s ‘gender apartheid’ of refusing to allow women to play the sport – a contravention of the ICC’s rules for full member countries.

Trott, who had his annual contract renewed for a third time to continue coaching Afghanistan remotely from his Birmingham base, said of their campaigning for equality: ‘If you go back and have a look through all their social medias – I’ve actually taken screenshots of the very eloquent things they say – they have very strong views and are very proactive in trying to make things right.’

Of his team, he added: ‘They’re under no illusions about where they come from and they’re very courageous characters.

‘You see that in their cricket and that’s the one thing I’ve not tried to change at all. They know who they are playing for and representing.

‘All I see in the dressing room is a bunch of guys very much clued up on the on-goings, but also what’s right and what’s wrong. I have a huge respect for them. They do a lot to bring joy to their country.

‘They do a lot behind the scenes that goes unnoticed, actually. I certainly remember in the 2023 World Cup when the country had earthquakes, Rashid donated all of his match fees to the aid efforts.’