England trained at the beautiful HPCA Stadium on Sunday afternoon and Monday morning and their captain Buttler admitted he had concerns about the outfield. “In my own opinion I think it’s bad,” he said. “I think whenever you talk about being careful when diving, or maybe being careful while fielding, it goes against everything you want as a team.
“You want to dive through a row of home runs to save a run. It’s obviously not ideal, the way the surface is, the outfield. But we won’t use that as an excuse. We’ll Will adapt. But certainly if you feel like you have to hold yourself back, that’s not where you want to be as a team, or as a player, or in a World Cup match. “
Asked if he was happy with the game going ahead, Butler told the BBC: “The powers that be are comfortable. The only thing I would question is if you don’t allow players to dive in and stuff. That being said, does this raise questions about the integrity of the game? The worst case scenario is that something bad happens, but fingers crossed that doesn’t happen for both teams.”
Butler said his players had to be careful in depth, “you don’t want to do that when you’re playing for your country.” He added, “You want to put your body on the line and try to save every single run and have confidence on the field. It’s not as good as it could be, or should be.”
“Naturally, you want to be comfortable on the field: if you see a ball, you want to dive for it. So, honestly, it’s unique and I know it will be the same for both teams . But if you’re holding yourself back, you shouldn’t feel that way. Hopefully, no one on either side will suffer any unfortunate injuries.”
England’s fast bowlers tested the run-up areas during their training session on Monday. “It’s just getting a level of trust,” Butler explained. “When people are trying to bowl fast, you need that confidence in your run-up. It will probably take a few balls for people to get used to it, but they are professionals and they will adapt.”