{"id":23047,"date":"2023-03-29T10:00:32","date_gmt":"2023-03-29T10:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/29\/the-spin-jos-buttlers-test-career-is-probably-over-but-the-what-ifs-remain\/"},"modified":"2023-03-29T10:00:32","modified_gmt":"2023-03-29T10:00:32","slug":"the-spin-jos-buttlers-test-career-is-probably-over-but-the-what-ifs-remain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/29\/the-spin-jos-buttlers-test-career-is-probably-over-but-the-what-ifs-remain\/","title":{"rendered":"The Spin | Jos Buttler\u2019s Test career is probably over \u2013 but the what-ifs remain"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n

A<\/span><\/span> Nat Sciver-Brunt paddle for four, a stream of blue shirts on to the field, and a game changed for ever. Mumbai Indians\u2019 seven-wicket win against Delhi Capitals<\/a> on Sunday brought the inaugural edition of the Women\u2019s Premier League to a close. But the tournament is here to stay.<\/span><\/p>\n

While the WPL represents something fresh and hopeful, the men\u2019s version, the behemoth that is the Indian Premier League, stands for one thing now: full-scale power.<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

Back this week for the start of its 16th season, the IPL, whether you like it or not, barks out the direction of the men\u2019s game, deals the cards and runs the playground. Last June it landed a rights deal worth $6bn<\/a> and the two-month tournament is now the main piece of a larger operation. IPL franchise owners have taken over South Africa\u2019s Twenty20 league, dipped their toes in to the United Arab Emirates, and they will even try to break America. And somehow at the centre of all of this is a softly-spoken Englishman.<\/p>\n

Jos Buttler was more than just pretty in pink last year for the Rajasthan Royals. Seventeen innings brought 863 runs at an average of 57.53, including four centuries, as he took his team to a runners-up finish. <\/strong>Turning patient starts at the top of the order into a blaze of disorder, <\/strong>Buttler\u2019s perfectly constructed knocks confirmed one thing: he is the IPL\u2019s greatest English import<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Then came the home summer, England\u2019s Test revolution and, for a brief second, a wild thought that did the rounds: could Buttler open the batting in Test cricket? When put to him by Jonathan Agnew, Buttler laughed it off: \u201cI thought someone had written the wrong story to be honest.\u201d The white ball and captaining England\u2019s short-form sides was his focus and has been ever since. That narrowing of his remit \u2013 a logical move in a calendar that forces every player to compromise \u2013 has brought success, too, in the form of a T20 World Cup triumph<\/a>. This is an arrangement that has worked out well for all parties involved.<\/p>\n

England were right to discard Buttler from their Test side after the Ashes last year. Fifty-seven Tests had brought some moments of joy but also a lack of fulfilment. The uber-confidence and aura of Buttler the limited-overs megastar never entirely transferred themselves to the red-ball batter. In the Test game he set out to play a more responsible way. \u201cTo have success in Test cricket you must be able to defend the ball well and look after the top of off-stump,\u201d he said a couple of years ago. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to just be a dasher who goes and gets 20 or 30, might score 60- or 70-odd.\u201d<\/p>\n

And yet Buttler\u2019s best Test innings remains a white-ballish 75 to secure a mightily impressive fourth-innings win against Pakistan<\/a> at Old Trafford in 2020. <\/strong>Sweeping and cover-driving Yasir Shah on a crumbling pitch, his sense of adventure was heightened by the looming threat of being dropped.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/picture><\/div>
<\/svg><\/span>Buttler wallops a four against Pakistan at Old Trafford in 2020.<\/span> Photograph: Tom Jenkins\/NMC Pool\/The Guardian<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This brings us to a somewhat sad note, a missed opportunity, a what-if moment. Surely there are others out there who also wonder how Buttler might have fared in the current Test team. Here stands the cleanest, purest hitter of them all, thoroughly watchable regardless of the format. What if, to make it all click in whites, all he needed was the TLC of Baz and Ben?<\/p>\n

Brendon McCullum namechecked him in the early days of his tenure, wondering out loud: \u201cHow could he be so dominant in one form of the game and not quite have found his feet, other than a few fleeting performances, in Test cricket?\u201d It sounded like the new head coach was ready to work his magic, but Buttler\u2019s last Test \u2013 and first-class appearance \u2013 remains England\u2019s draw with Australia<\/a> in Sydney last year.<\/p>\n

The reasons for his continued absence are sound. How would you play a Test in New Zealand one day and be in Bangladesh to captain the one-day international side the next? Then there is the excellence of Ben Foakes behind the stumps and the useful runs he contributes in front of them. As a specialist batter, how would Buttler find space in a middle order that is already struggling to make room for Jonny Bairstow?<\/p>\n

skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n