In an “instinctive decision”, Buttler bowled the ball to Will Jacks to bowl the second over of England’s World Cup match against Australia. With a gale blowing towards the boundary on the short leg side, Travis Head and David Warner gleefully smashed Jacks. Twenty-two runs left the end. Australia won by 36.
“It was probably warmer than we thought,” coach Matthew Mott said at the time. And fair play to the sun, by the way, what a player he is.
Back in Barbados, Buttler admitted he feared taking the hit after England’s back-to-back World Cup failures. “I thought it was a possibility, absolutely,” he said. “At that time after the T20 World Cup, I’m sure Rob Key took a very deep look at everything related to the white-ball set-up.
“I had some good conversations with Keysy and I told him I don’t want to do it because I’m the only person who can do it, I want to do it because I’m the right person to do it. He believed I could lead the team and be captain into the future and take the team to a good place.”
Players are required to say they want to play and captain as many games as they can for their country, but Buttler’s calf injury, a recurring problem that ended up keeping him out of action for four months, gave him time to consider whether that was really true. for himself.
“All kinds of things go through your mind,” he said of the time he spends considering his future. “I think you try to solve everything.
“[Captaincy] It’s something I’ve really enjoyed the honor of doing and something I think I can do well. “When you really focus and think about the decision you are going to make, it becomes very clear that you are now determined to do it and move forward.”
The addition of McCullum as head coach – he will add white-ball work to his Test portfolio from January – has given Buttler new life. When the New Zealander’s name was first mentioned, Buttler thought the appointment would be “impossible”, but with the calendar relaxing in 2025, McCullum felt he could juggle both commitments.
“When you have an injury like that, you realize how badly you want to come back and the things you really enjoy doing, so that’s the mentality I have.”
The pair have been friends for a long time, and McCullum hopes to leverage that relationship to bring out the best in Buttler. McCullum’s own experiences as New Zealand white-ball captain in the latter stages of his career have been a source of inspiration for Buttler.
“I had a few chats with Baz about how this stage of your career can be the most rewarding,” Buttler said. “He talked about his own experiences as captain over the last few years when he was playing, it’s not about you at all, it’s about creating that environment and letting people flourish and how watching them get to the top of the mountain was some of the moments. happiest of their playing career and that’s exactly what I want to get out of them.
With a renewed commitment to the England set-up, Buttler says he wants to play “as much as I can” in the coming years and “help develop the next era of white-ball cricket”.
“When cricket is taken away from you, you get a good perspective on how great it is, how important it is and how much you enjoy it. It’s all the little things that you sometimes take for granted that you really miss the most, like being in the locker room, putting on the jersey. When you start thinking about it, it gives you a lot of hunger and motivation to come back, work hard and play again.”
Buttler’s new life begins on the same stage where it looked like it might have ended, although England were not dethroned until the semi-final against India in Guyana. Tasked with leading a new pack against West Indies’ T20 stars, Buttler will do so from the middle as he abandons wicket-keeping in this series to experiment with where he is happiest as captain.
Winning will help, but regardless of the outcome, Buttler is a new man with a renewed sense of purpose.
“When you have an injury like that, you realize how badly you want to come back and the things you really enjoy doing, so that’s the mentality of how long do I have left back,” he said.
“I think throughout the three ODIs [against West Indies]Jacob Bethell scoring fifty years for his maid, Dan Mousley [also] In the last game, you see those guys take that opportunity and take advantage of it, which is incredibly exciting. And whatever that means in terms of squads, it’s exciting for English cricket.”
Cameron Ponsonby is a freelance cricket writer based in London. @cameronponsonby
