Jos Buttler, who is currently leading England in white-ball formats, stresses he is apprehensive about this test return to the national side and is presently accentuating the 50-over World Cup in 2023, which India would host.
Jos Buttler last participated in a test on January 5th, which was the 4th Ashes fixture at Sydney Cricket Ground. The wicket-keeper batter had a daunting encounter where he was dismissed for the scores of 0(8), and 11(38) in both innings.
Cogitiating his penurious form, Jos Buttler was relinquished from the Engish line-up for the 5th and final Ashes test, and Kent keeper Sam Billings was roped in by the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB). Nonetheless, England was eradicated in the last test by 146 runs and Australia went on to conquer The Ashes 4-0.
The 32-year-old Jos Buttler made his test debut against India in 2014 at Rose Bowl and he stitched a remarkable 85(83) in his maiden test fixture. Since then, the Somerset cricketer has accumulated 2907 test runs in 57 matches at a strike rate of 54.18. Averaging 31.95 in the longest format, Buttler has also secured 18 half-centuries and 2 centuries.
“We Have to Build a Balanced Team Ahead of the World Cup”, Jos Buttler
In Jos Buttler’s captaincy, England was recently crowned as the World T20 Champions after trouncing Pakistan in the finals. The opener Jos Buttler played a pivotal role in England’s triumph as the right-handed orchestrated 225 runs in 6 innings at a strike of 144.2, which included a 73(47) against New Zealand and a scintillating 80* (49) in the semi-final against India.
Jos Buttler, while addressing Sky Sports, quoted about the feasibility of his return to the Ben Stokes-led test side. He said, “We will wait and see, I do not know for the minute, to be honest. I am really enjoying what I am doing at the moment, and getting the opportunity to captain the white-ball teams has been a great challenge and really enjoyable.”
The next major tournament on Jos Buttler and coach Matthew Mott’s calendar is World Cup 2023. England appears to be playing a three-match series against South Africa preceding the main Cricket World Cup, subsequently, conducting two series at home against New Zealand and Ireland in September.
Jos Buttler also stressed the fabricating of the empty spots which were left open after the retirement of Ben Stokes and Eoin Morgan. He said, “The attention turns to the 50-over World Cup. We have had a couple of retirements from the side, some stalwarts in Stokes and Morgan.”
“We have got to work out how we fill that hole and give guys the opportunity to take those positions up and look to build a balanced team ahead of the tournament,” Buttler added.
The pyrotechnic batter, Jos Buttler has had a crumbling run performing in India. The northpaw has played 7 ODI innings in Indian conditions, aggregating only 83 runs at an average of 11.9. Buttler’s highest score in India in ODI is 31(36), which came in 2017 at Pune.
Lastly, Jos Buttler is also thrilled about Jofra Archer’s comeback to international cricket after an injury. He quoted, “Jofra is such an X-factor player and an exciting player. For English cricket fans and for him himself to get back out there is fantastic for everyone.”
The Ben Stokes-led England test team is currently touring Pakistan for a three-match test series and having won the first test, England leads the series 1-0. In absence of Jos Buttler, Ben Foakes and Ben Duckett are England’s viable wicket-keeping options.
