Jos Buttler has outlined the challenges his England side face ahead of their 50-over World Cup defence later this year, having become double champions when they won the T20 World Cup in 2022

Englandwhite-ball captainJos Buttlerhad some big shoes to fill when he took over fromEoin Morganin June last year following hisretirement from international cricket.

Since taking charge in 2015, Morgan had overseen a white-ball revolution which culminated in England winning the50-over World Cupon home soil in 2019. And after some early struggles saw England lose Buttlers first three series in charge, they hit their stride in the winter and went on to win theT20 World Cup.

England are now double champions in white-ball cricket and are looking to defend their 50-over crown later this year. But with just 13 ODIs scheduled before the tournament gets underway in October, Buttler admits England have more challenges to deal with this time around than they did in 2019.

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England have series scheduled againstSouth AfricaBangladeshNew ZealandandIreland, but Buttler is unlikely to have a full-strength squad at his disposal.Joe RootandMark Wood, both World Cup winners in 2019, have both been rested for the South Africa series.

There is also only a one-day gap between the end of the New Zealand Test series and the start of the Bangladesh ODI series, meaning the likes of Harry Brook,Ben Duckett, Will Jacks, Olly Stone and Root are unlikely to feature.

And England do have plenty of questions they need to answer before the World Cup begins, with two huge gaps to fill in the middle order following the retirements of Morgan andBen Stokes- althoughEngland are hoping the latter will unretire for the World Cup.

We dont have many games before the World Cup so they are all crucial for us to try and nail down some positions and give people some confidence in role clarity, Buttler toldSky Sports.

We have a decent idea of the squad we want to take to the World Cup but there is competition for places and people pushing and that drives people and standards. We have a lot of options and over the next six months it is up to us to nail down what that looks like.

There are challenges through scheduling and availability of players where you dont get to build up like you did four years ago - I think we played 70 ODIs or something like that before the last World Cup, but now there have been fewer games and less time together.

Thats just the way it is, there is no reason it should affect our performance. The series in Bangladesh will be a vital one, probably the only real chance we will get to experience conditions that we might at the World Cup in India.

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