What to do with Jos Buttler?
England’s greatest white-ball batter of all time is having a lousy time right now. His T20 World Cup stats make for harrowing reading.
Butler has registered only 62 runs in seven innings at an average of 8.85. All but 15 of those runs came across scores of 26 and 21 against Nepal and West Indies respectively to start the tournament.
Since then, Buttler’s best effort is an incredibly scratchy 14-ball seven versus Sri Lanka. Around that he has been dismissed for three, three, two and, most recently, nought.
His two-ball duck against New Zealand, which came after he walked down the pitch to Lockie Ferguson and tamely poked behind, was tough to watch but not surprising.
Buttler seems a man at war with himself more than opposition bowlers. England may now have a decision to make.
Jos Buttler’s scores during his T20 World Cup campaign so far
Could Buttler be dropped?
Dropping Buttler does not seem likely, although they do have the option of replacing him with Ben Duckett, the spare out-and-out batter in their 15-strong squad.
The issue there, though, is Duckett has not batted since bagging a golden duck in the final T20 of a bilateral series against Sri Lanka on February 3 – and has not batted with any great success, bar an ODI 62 against Sri Lanka on January 22, since last summer.
He endured a chastening Ashes series on the field as well as off it.
You could make the argument that Duckett could not do any worse than Buttler is currently but England appear loath to jettison a man who has been a linchpin of their white-ball batting – and indeed world cricket’s white-ball batting – for well over a decade.
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England captain Harry Brook has backed Buttler to come good in the knockout stages of the T20 World Cup
England captain Brook has had to field numerous questions about Buttler’s form, or lack there of, in recent weeks but his answer has not changed.
Speaking after Buttler’s blob in the four-wicket win over New Zealand, Brook said: “He has played 150-odd T20Is for England, averaging nearly 34 with a strike-rate of 177, so people maybe need to take a step back.
“He is probably the best white-ball batter to have played the game.
“He is in a little bit of a rut now, but it is exciting for everyone in the world to know what he could produce in the next couple of games.
“He has a lot of fire in the belly and wants to show what he is made of. He is a phenomenal player and I have no doubt he will do well.”
Buttler has suffered five successive single-figure dismissals at the T20 World Cup
Should Buttler move down the order?
That’s probably a ‘no’ to dropping him then – but what about dropping him down the order? Giving a Sam Curran, a Jacob Bethell, a Tom Banton, maybe even a Rehan Ahmed, a go with Phil Salt up top and slotting Buttler in later on?
He averages 36.61 across 16 T20Is batting at No 3, although captain Brook now appears to have that spot sewn up after his 50-ball century versus Pakistan last week.
Buttler has only batted outside the top three twice in this format since 2018 and not at all since a series at home to New Zealand in 2023, while the middle-order batting of others has been a key part of England’s success in this World Cup.
So opener is where Buttler looks set to stay for the semi-final, which will most likely be against India or West Indies in Mumbai on Thursday March 5, and the final if they get there.
The business end of a competition would be the perfect time to rediscover his mojo.
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Moeen Ali has urged Buttler to believe after another low score
Friend and former England team-mate Moeen Ali said of Buttler on Sky Sports: “He definitely has the ability and he has to believe it is going to come.
“I know that’s difficult, but I have been in many sides where somebody is not scoring runs until the last couple of games and that’s when the good players turn up.
“Against New Zealand, I think Jos tried to do something a bit different – stepping down the wicket, trying to get bat on ball, trying to get off the mark, be busy.
“He just nicked something that bounced a bit more than he anticipated.”
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