England endured a nightmare in their just-concluded white-ball tour of India. While the Three Lions conceded the ODI series 0-3, they suffered a 1-4 defeat at the hands of India in the five-T20I series.

During the third ODI in Ahmedabad on Wednesday (February 12), former India head coach Ravi Shastri and ex-England captain Kevin Pietersen mince no words as they strongly criticized the Jos Buttler-led side for not holding enough practice sessions.

Speaking on-air, Shastri made a shocking revelation that the English team had just one net session during the India tour and slammed their unserious attitude before the Champions Trophy 2025.

"From what I've heard, England have had just one net session this entire trip, if not any. If you're not prepared to do the hard yards, you're not going to improve,” Shastri said.

Pietersen, who was also present in the commentary box, added some more to the claim as he revealed that Tom Banton, who joined the England squad as a replacement for Jacob Bethell, was practising golf on the eve of the third ODI against India.

Amid the criticism, England skipper Jos Buttler defended his team's training routine, stating that they had trained sufficiently despite some skipped sessions owing to the tour’s length.

"I'm not sure that's quite true, to be honest. We had a reasonably long tour, a few long travel days. There's been a couple of times we've not trained, but we've certainly done plenty of training throughout the tour," Buttler told reporters in Ahmedabad.

"We obviously try and create a really good environment, but don't mistake that for a lazy environment or a lack of effort. The guys are desperate to perform and do well and improve," he added.

While England trained in Kolkata for the first T20I before the tour started, they trained in Chennai and Rajkot for the second and third Twenty20 Internationals. However, there were no practices before the fourth and fifth Twenty20 Internationals at Pune and Mumbai, respectively.

According to Buttler, the tourists did not do enough to take advantage of the opportunities they had during the tour.

"It's probably a bit of a similar theme from this series and the whole tour. We had a couple of moments in the game, but never enough to go on and force a result or win against a really good team," he said.

Buttler hoped that in-form opener Ben Duckett would recover from a groin injury sustained during the third ODI in time for the Champions Trophy, slated to get underway on February 19.

"He's obviously been playing really well and hopefully it's not too bad. We'll find out more, obviously, over the next couple of days, but it's a little bit of time. Hopefully he'll be okay," he said.

"He's played fantastically well all tour. He seems to keep getting better and better. (We are) really pleased with how he's performing and he's been great for us," Buttler added.

Buttler claimed that England's confidence has not been dented by their losses to India. "Not necessarily. Obviously, we want the results to build confidence and win games. That (would) feel a lot better sitting here and having won matches as opposed to losing. But look, we're up against a good side in their own conditions. They're probably the benchmark in ODI cricket at the moment," he said.

"We've not played near our potential. We've had some moments in games, but never enough to force results or look like winning games of cricket in the last three matches."

"But the fact that we're not anywhere near our potential yet or playing individually or collectively where we know we can be gives us something to look forward to and believe that we can get there and be a dangerous team in the Champions Trophy," he said.