Newly-appointed England limited-overs captain Jos Buttler has admitted that his Test cricket career is with “no red balls in my bag” as he prepares to focus on white-ball internationals.
Buttler replaces Eoin Morgan as England captain in One Day International and Twenty20 formats after 50 overs of 2019 World The cup-winning captain announced his retirement from international cricket on Tuesday.
The dynamic 31-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman was the vice-captain of Morgan, who had cut short his Test career to focus on white-ball cricket since 2015.
World Cup-winning Butler, a star of the Indian Premier League, is a formidable run-scorer in limited-overs cricket, where his swashbuckling hits have helped him score 4,120 runs in 151 ODIs including 10 centuries.
But he has had little success in the five-day Test format, with only two centuries in 57 matches, and is not a member of the England squad in the delayed fifth Test at Edgbaston.
– ‘Wrong story’ –
It was suggested that Butler – a middle-order batsman in red-ball cricket – could replace struggling opener Zac Crawley in the England Test team, now captained by multi-format all-rounder Ben Stokes.
And while he didn’t go as far as Morgan in ending his Test career, Butler told the BBC in Edgbaston on Friday: “I thought someone wrote the wrong story, to be honest. I don’t think it’s in (opening in Tests).” ) is too strong.
“It was Kumar (Sangakkara), wasn’t it? Maybe he was just promoting the Rajasthan Royals openers! Butler said about his IPL franchise boss.
“I have been enjoying watching the Test team lately. I don’t have any red balls in my bag at the moment.”
Buttler is set to take charge of 12 matches in July, against whom the T20 and ODI series will take place. India and South Africa. His first major global event as captain will be the T20 World Cup in Australia in October, with England defending their 50-over crown in India next year.
He was installed as captain by Rob Key, the New England director of men’s cricket, who had already made Stokes captain of the Test team and split coaching roles.
England completed a 3–0 whitewash of Test world champions in their first series under the new red-ball leadership pairing of Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum, with new white-ball owner Matthew Mott thrashing the Netherlands in a 3–0 ODI win. presided over. In his first series charge.
England named their squad for the upcoming white-ball series at home to India on Friday, adding Yorkshire batsman Harry Brooke for both the T20 and ODI campaigns.
The 23-year-old’s international experience is limited to a T20I against West Indies in Barbados in January. But Brooke has been excelling at the domestic level this season, averaging 115.75 in the County Championship and 48 in the T20 Blast with an impressive strike-rate of 169.16.
England squad for T20 series:
Jos Buttler (c), Moeen Ali, Harry Brooke, Sam Curran, Richard Gleason, Chris Jordan, Liam Livingstone, David Malan, Tymal Mills, Matthew Parkinson, Jason Roy, Phil Salt, Reece Topley, David Willey
England squad for ODI series:
Jos Buttler (c, wk), Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Harry Brooke, Brydon Carrs, Sam Curran, Liam Livingstone, Craig Overton, Matthew Parkinson, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Phil Salt, Ben Stokes, Reece Topley, David Willey
fixtures
T20 series
July 7, 1st T20: England v India, Ageas Bowl
July 9, 2nd T20I: England v India, Edgbaston
July 10, 3rd T20: England v India, Trent Bridge
one day series
July 12, 1st ODI: England v India, The Oval
July 14, 2nd ODI: England v India, Lord’s
July 17, 3rd ODI: England v India, Old Trafford
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