Buttler grateful for Warne guidance
AUSTRALIA may regret Shane Warne’s latest encouragement of a talented English cricketer if Jos Buttler’s return to Test duty proves a success.
Buttler was the eye-catching choice when new England national selector Ed Smith named his first Test squad for the series opener with Pakistan at Lord’s today.
Although widely regarded as one of the most talented ball-strikers in world cricket, Buttler played the last of his 18 Tests in December 2016, against India at Chennai.
He also hasn’t played a first-class match since September, with the 27-year-old’s fine run of form in the Twenty20 Indian Premier League, where he scored five successive fifties for the Rajasthan Royals, rather than in the traditional proving ground of England’s County Championship, providing the basis for Buttler’s recall.
Outstanding Australia leg-spinner Warne tormented dozens of England batsmen during his brilliant career, with 195 of his eventual 708 Test wickets coming in Ashes contests.
But he also urged England to give his then Hampshire teammate Kevin Pietersen a Test debut ahead of the 2005 Ashes series – a call the ‘old enemy’ heeded, with the South Africa-born batsman sealing the return of the urn with an audacious 158, an innings in which he was dropped by Warne, during a series- clinching draw at The Oval in London.
Warne, a team mentor at Rajasthan, also convinced Buttler there was no reason why the game that had worked so well for him in whiteball cricket could not prove equally effective in a Test match.
“I really enjoyed having Shane Warne as our team mentor,” Buttler told reporters at Lord’s on Monday.
“We spoke a lot about Test cricket and how I could potentially get back there. Obviously it’s come around a lot sooner. It’s amazing learning.” – AFP