England wicket-keeper batsman Jos Buttler expressed that they need to have players who can bat like Chris Gayle if they are to win the ICC tournaments.

On Wednesday, England were blown away by Gayle’s match-winning century which helped West Indies chase down a target of 183 runs in 18.1 overs.

Though England managed to posed 182 for six in 20 overs on the back of knocks from Joe Root and Buttler, they had no answer for Gayle, who dispatched the bowlers over the fence eleven times.

Buttler feels that in global events, fans come out to see players like Gayle score big runs and reasoned that England need such players if they are to pose a challenge in the ICC tournaments.

“That’s what you get when you turn up at world tournaments - all the best players in the world in one place,” Buttler said.

“It’s great for fans to see these guys perform at one time and we’ve got to have guys who stand up and compete with them.

“We need to produce these players in our side as well if we’re going to go further and win these tournaments.

“With the bat we were probably par at best last time.

“We were looking more for 200 and needed someone to go on and play that big innings, to get that really big score that would have helped kick us on towards the 200 mark.”

England’s performance in the recent ICC tournaments has been quite inconsistent, having reached the finals of the ICC Champions Trophy in 2013 while failing to reach the knockout stages of the 2014 ICC World T20 and the 2015 Cricket World Cup.

Stating that the exit in the 2015 Cricket World Cup was one of the worst feelings he experienced, Buttler stressed on the importance of moving on and learning from the mistakes made in the past.

“Ten months ago at the World Cup was some of the worst feelings I’ve ever had on a cricket field.

“Whether you’ve played in world tournaments or not, we’ve all had bad experiences in cricket.

“You learn from them; you move on from them.

“You still come back, dust yourself down and go again.

“We’ll be really focused on that.

“It’s still a game of cricket, you have the same emotions and the same thought processes but the outcome could potentially be more defining on the tournament.

“But it’s still 20 overs, it’s still 22 yards, and we’ve got to focus on that and learn from what happened against the West Indies.”

Having lost their first game of the 2016 ICC World T20, England will look to get a win under their belt when they take on South Africa in Mumbai on 18th March. 

© Cricket World 2016