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Jos Buttler accepted his future as England captain was out of his hands after another painful defeat sent his side tumbling towards the World Cup exit door.<\/p>\n
England knew nothing less than victory over Sri Lanka would be enough to keep alive their fading hopes of reaching the semi-finals and they responded with arguably their worst performance yet in a campaign littered with low points.<\/p>\n
After choosing to bat first, they were skittled for a meagre 156 in 33.2 overs, then watched as their opponents cantered home by eight wickets in Bangalore with almost half of the innings unused.<\/p>\n
The thrashing, which followed heavy losses to New Zealand, Afghanistan and South Africa, left the reigning champions ninth in the standings with an eye-watering net run-rate.<\/p>\n
With four games to go \u2013 including table-topping India and bitter rivals Australia \u2013 they are being kept off bottom spot by the only associate nation at the competition, the Netherlands.<\/p>\n
Remarkably, England are not yet mathematically out with four games to play, but the route is fanciful in the extreme and Buttler acknowledged the game was up.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt certainly looks that way and that\u2019s incredibly disappointing. It would need a few miracles,\u201d he said, glassy-eyed after another draining day.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou get on the plane with high hopes and a lot of confidence and belief that we can challenge for the title, so to be sat here now with the three weeks we\u2019ve had is a shock. It\u2019s a shock to everyone.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll walk back in the dressing room after this, look at the players sat there and think \u2018how have we found ourselves in this position with the talent and the skill that\u2019s in the room\u2019?<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it is the position we\u2019re in, it\u2019s the reality of what\u2019s happened over the last three weeks and that\u2019s a huge low point.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pressed on his own status in charge of the side Buttler indicated a desire to continue but a realisation that the verdict may not be his to make.<\/p>\n
In reality, England do not have an obvious successor lined up and Buttler is relatively new in the role, having inherited the mantle following Eoin Morgan\u2019s retirement last summer.<\/p>\n
He also has a T20 World Cup win in the bank and there has been no indication that managing director of the men\u2019s cricket, Rob Key, has an itchy trigger finger.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think you\u2019re always questioning as captain how you can get the best out of players, how you can get the team moving in the right direction,\u201d Buttler admitted.<\/p>\n
\u201cI certainly have a lot of confidence and belief in myself as a leader and captain and first and foremost as a player, but if you\u2019re asking if I should still be captaining the team, that\u2019s a question for the guys above me.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe tournament\u2019s gone nowhere near the way we wanted it to\u2026that much is obvious. As a leader, you want to lead through your own performance and I\u2019ve not been able to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Head coach Matthew Mott joined Buttler in writing off the chances of sneaking through to the last four, telling BBC Sport: \u201cYeah, it\u2019s over now, I think.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not a mathematician, but with our net run-rate and too many teams who are going to take games off each other, we have to come to terms with that. From now we\u2019re playing for a lot of pride.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe feel like we\u2019ve let our fans down, our families and supporters and everyone in that dressing room, we haven\u2019t put our best foot forward and in professional sport, that\u2019s what you\u2019re judged on.\u201d<\/p>\n