Jos Buttler admits the numbers look ordinary. Four innings, a total of 53 runs, highest score 26 – scratchy stuff for a player who rattled past 4,000 T20I runs only a few days ago. England have still slipped into the Super Eights, yet their captain-opener knows he is due.
“I’m a bit frustrated, to be honest,” Buttler said on his For the Love of Cricket podcast, speaking with the easy frankness that tends to follow a low score. “I felt like I was playing really well in South Africa, in the SA20, without getting scores. One thing I’d always pride myself on in T20s is, if you get in, to be able to go on and make a good contribution. I found myself getting out in the teens and twenties quite a bit, getting starts and then finding ways to get out.”
That theme has continued in the Caribbean. Buttler collected 26 against Nepal, 21 versus West Indies, and then identical dismissals – both caught at mid-off – for three against Scotland and Italy. Each time he was trying to beat the in-field inside the Powerplay, each time the ball didn’t quite travel. “I think [I have been] maybe almost trying a bit too hard, as opposed to just being a bit relaxed at the crease and letting it happen,” he reflected.
Key facts first, then: Buttler is short of runs; England’s next opponents are Sri Lanka, Pakistan and New Zealand; and there is little appetite, either from the dressing-room or the skipper himself, to shelve the attacking template that underpinned England’s 2022 title win.
“T20 is one of those games that asks you to keep making plays,” he explained. “At times, when you’ve been out of form in a Test match, a batting coach might say, ‘Just rein it in for a bit, and try and bat for an hour, and it will come back to you – just by hook or by crook, bat for an hour.’
“But in T20 you’ve got to keep playing the scoreboard. If you’re chasing 10 an over, you’ve got to play accordingly. I saw Nasser saying, ‘Just bat for 15 overs’ and I’d love to just bat for 15 overs, but I don’t want to bat for 15 overs just for myself and ignore the game. You’ve got to still play the game.”
Nasser Hussain, on Sky Sports duty, had politely nudged Buttler to “give yourself a bit of a chance” after Monday’s win over Italy. For context: that match mattered, a stumble would have left England calculating net-run-rate permutations again. Instead Phil Salt struck 67 and the holders got home in a hurry, leaving Buttler’s brief stay a footnote. Husain’s remark – essentially, ‘take a breath, occupy the crease’ – is sound enough in 50-over or Test cricket. The skipper’s reply, though, underlines modern T20 reality: every over is a mini-deadline, so even a batter out of nick has to attack the gaps.
So where does that leave England? Internally, nobody is panicking. Buttler’s career strike-rate (148) and his habit of turning starts into carnage are well known. Equally, the raw figures since the end of the English summer are stark: one half-century in 16 T20 knocks for country and franchise, plus a top score of 38 in five winter ODIs. Form can be fleeting, and run-scoring in Caribbean February breezes is never simple, but there is work to do.
Coaching staff, for their part, are pushing rhythm rather than mechanics. Word from training is that Buttler looks fine, timing sweet enough, no glaring technical glitch. A bit of rust, a little bit of over-thinking – fairly normal when the mind is leading the hands.
The captain tries not to linger on it. “I love batting and I love playing cricket and I love scoring runs,” he said. “As much as you’re frustrated with your form and you want to obviously contribute to the team, part of cricket is I love batting, and so not doing as much batting as you would like is frustrating. It’s just trying to remember the things that you do well at your best and trying to take each game as it comes.”
Analytically, Buttler’s initial movements seem fine; he is setting up slightly open, watching the ball, still quick on anything short. The issue has been the final decision – when to go aerial, when to thread the gap, when to park the ego for a ball or two. Expect him to keep attacking, but perhaps with a touch more selectivity against the new ball, especially if opposition captains dangle a sweeper on the off side and a deep square early.
The bigger picture is clear enough. England need their skipper’s runs once the Super Eights begin. Pressure will rise, spin is likely to dominate, and totals could shrink. A chancy 40 at a run-a-ball won’t always cut it; a commanding 60 off 35 might decide a semi-final spot. Buttler knows all this – few players read a white-ball chase better – and that is why he is resisting the easy, perhaps tempting, narrative of caution.
It is a tightrope. Play the percentages too hard and you risk dulling the very instinct that makes you dangerous. Double down and the outside edge to third man becomes inevitable. The sweet spot – a fraction later pick-up, slightly flatter trajectory, hands through the line rather than under it – will return eventually; the only question is whether it resurfaces in time to shape this tournament.
For now, Buttler carries on. The next new ball is in two days, the next chance to shrug off the lean patch likewise. England’s head coach will not be telling him to leave well alone; he is more likely to remind him that an 18-ball Powerplay can still tilt a World Cup. And when it comes, nobody – teammates, opponents, broadcasters – will be surprised. After all, the man does not rein himself in.
