Jos Buttler previews the fourth one-day international in Perth
Jos Buttler has spoken of his huge desire to ensure England do not match an unwanted record.
Nine defeats on the spin against Australia dating back to last summer have left Alastair Cook’s side one loss from matching England’s worst run in international cricket.
They have lost 10 in a row on two occasions, in 1993 and 2001, and Buttler is keen to prevent a repeat in tomorrow's fourth ODI at Perth.
“Obviously we are very desperate to avoid that (losing record),” said Buttler. “It’s not a tag anyone would like.
“You go into every game wanting to win it and we haven’t done that this tour. Everyone is very disappointed with that fact, but Friday is another opportunity to try and turn that around.”
Moving 3-0 ahead in this series, combined with India losing the opening two games of their ongoing rubber in New Zealand, has seen Australia rise to the summit of the ODI rankings.
England, though, have a chance to immediately knock them off their perch – not that Buttler et al are too focussed on such a possibility.
“It is a major focus for us to win a game of cricket,” he added. “We haven’t done that on this tour and everyone knows why, because we haven’t performed well enough.
“We have to turn that around at some point. We can’t hide behind the fact and no-one wants to continue losing every game of cricket anyone ever plays for England again.”
Buttler believes the key to such a success is players being willing to play their natural games.
“One-day cricket is a tough game to play when your confidence has been knocked,” he said.
“You need to play with that free, open mind. That’s something we need to do. We can’t worry about consequences of playing a shot and worrying about getting out.
“We just need to take that mentality in - we had a good chat on Tuesday and a day off yesterday. Everyone is feeling refreshed.
“You’ve seen the Australians playing with a good brand of cricket and a very confident brand of cricket naturally because they are winning games.
“It’s a very tough thing to do when you are losing games to not worry about the outcomes of potentially getting out and these sorts of things.
“That’s something we have to do - lose that worry of those kinds of things and know what good players we are and be confident in that.”
A weakened Australia has been named for tomorrow’s game, with Michael Clarke, David Warner and Brad Haddin rested and spinner Xavier Doherty left out.
Replacing them are George Bailey, who has overcome a hip problem and will captain the side, Steven Smith, Matthew Wade and Mitchell Johnson.