A cricketer’s life is a short one and so evolution is consequently rapid. A fresh-faced bright young thing surfaces amid great excitement and curiosity; suddenly they somehow evolve into an established international cricketer and then after minimal blinking there is the gnarled old pro maybe pondering a career as a coach or a pundit once the playing days are gone. It all happens so fast.
Imperceptibly Jos Buttler seems to have arrived at that middle stage. He is 27 now; he has played 190 times for England, 20 of which have been in Test cricket, and since his return to the red-ball game has so far proven to be a damn fine idea, the chances of him resuming as a three-format cricketer are now excellent.
He is not yet gnarled, but it is almost seven years since he first played for England in a Twenty20 match against India at Old Trafford. The management team increasingly seek his opinion – with good reason. For such an instinctive, free-spirited batsman, Buttler thinks seriously about the game.
The past fortnight has prompted Buttler’s career to swerve in an exciting direction – for him and for those who treasure Test cricket. The manner in which he changed gear on Sunday morning, from dutiful Test batsman to devastating destroyer, made for compelling viewing.
His success in two Tests against Pakistan has suggested, contrary to the age-old mantras, that it is possible to swerve from T20 to Test cricket without any intervening period of rehabilitation in the longer game – provided you are blessed with exceptional talent and a clear mind. Before the match at Lord’s Buttler mentioned that he felt as if he was making another debut after his 18-month absence from Test cricket and he returned to that theme after the game at Headingley.
Chris Woakes has joined Ben Stokes on the injury sidelines for England’s first one-day international of the summer against Scotland on Sunday.Woakes, who will be replaced by Tom Curran in the squad to play in Edinburgh, left the field at Headingley on Sunday with a thigh injury. An ECB statement read: “Woakes will be assessed this week to ascertain if he’ll be fit for the Australia series.” Curran has eight ODI caps and was part of the team which won in New Zealand three months ago. Jos Buttler is to be rested for Sunday’s game.
England ODI squad versus Scotland (Sunday) Eoin Morgan, Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Billings, Alex Hales, Dawid Malan, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, David Willey, Tom Curran, Mark Wood.
“My mentality has been similar to my first few Tests, not worrying about external factors, just trying to play the game and trusting myself‚“ he said. “But the big difference is experience,” he said. “When I was a young player I didn’t really believe in experience when the older guys told me I would improve or understand things in time. I used to think you could either do it or you couldn’t. But now I understand how valuable experience is, not only on the field but in the stuff that goes on beyond it.”
Buttler excelled with the bat at the start of his Test career before petering out and he can now rationalise why. “I started to think too much about how not to get out as opposed to how to score runs and I got into a really bad rut. The only way out of it was to be dropped, which actually released a lot of pressure.”
This is a point worth remembering for selectors. Rather than being consumed by giving someone countless chances in an effort to be fair, it is worth recalling how a cricketer can benefit from being dropped and having the space to reassess.
Buttler has returned to Test cricket via the white-ball game. In particular his form in the Indian Premier League this spring enabled him to start a Test with confidence high, even if his surprise selection also represented a voyage of discovery – or rediscovery.
“The IPL gave me huge amounts of confidence, to be in those pressure situations in India, in front of big crowds and being one of the overseas players‚” he said. “For me, not trying to worry about the colour of the ball definitely helps.”
He explains some of the different demands of T20 and Test cricket. “In T20 there’s generally another game around the corner. You’re almost set up to fail a lot of the time, especially if you’re batting in the middle order. The tough thing with Test cricket is that if you get out early you’ve got a long time to think about it.
“You guys have to write about it; the Sky commentators have to fill time and they can pick you to pieces. In T20 you just move on to another game two days later. In cricket you fail in your head maybe seven or eight times out of 10. You’re always dealing with failure, which makes it such a tough game to master mentally.”
Buttler clearly understands how precarious the game can be and he would never claim to have cracked it. “I’ve only played two Test matches coming back so I’m not going to get too far ahead of myself.”
His globetrotting on the T20 circuit over the past two years has also helped him. “I haven’t been kicking my heels, saying I’m a failure in Test cricket and regretting how it went.” But unlike Adil Rashid and Alex Hales, he has not been tempted to rule out returning to the most taxing form of the game, for which England are very grateful. Even in the helter-skelter world of the modern cricketer there is still time enough for Buttler to have a significant Test career.
