KARACHI: Jos Buttler said on Friday he is to step down as England´s white-ball captain after a disastrous Champions Trophy campaign ended with them failing to reach the semi-finals.

“I´m going to stand down as England captain, it´s the right decision for me and the team,” the 34-year-old said at a press conference. “And hopefully somebody else can come in and work closely alongside (Brendon McCullum) to take the team back to where it needs to be.” Buttler said: “It was quite clear that this tournament was going to be important results-wise for my captaincy” and felt he had “reached the end of the road”.

England have lost 15 of their last 21 one-day internationals. England failed to retain either their T20 and 50-over World Cup titles under Buttler´s captaincy. The team lost their first two matches and the defeat by Afghanistan in Lahore on Wednesday ended their hopes of reaching the knockout stages of the 50-over tournament.

Chasing 326 for victory, England came up just short despite Joe Root´s valiant 120 and fell to 317 all out. The opening defeat was against Ashes rivals Australia after England failed to defend 351 following a batting onslaught by Josh Inglis, who hit an unbeaten 120.

Buttler has been unable to replicate England´s success as captain of the white-ball team since he led them to a T20 World Cup title in 2022 shortly after taking over from Eoin Morgan. England won only three of their nine matches as defending champions at the 50-over World Cup in India in 2023. The team exited in the semi-final of last year´s T20 World Cup and recently suffered a 3-0 ODI whitewash in India ahead of the Champions Trophy.