JOS THE JOB TO MISS OUT

LEAVING Sri Lanka with a 2-0 win safely tucked away, England coach Chris Silverwood claimed he was ‘perfectly happy’ at losing one of his best players for three Test matches in India.

Whether his body language and tone of voice betrayed him was a little difficult to tell on a Zoom call across 5,000 miles with a weak internet connection.

But it was hard to escape the fact that the praise he heaped on Jos Buttler’s efforts on tour with bat and gloves flew completely in the face of the decision to play him in just one Test in India.

Rest and rotation are the buzzwords Silverwood (right) knows only too well and the arrival of bio-secure environments in these Covid times have made the need for ‘downtime’ away from bubbles a must.

But it is entirely fair to wonder why a man into whom the ECB have poured so much time and effort into making him become a matchwinning Test cricketer, is removed from that form of the game when he starts winning Test matches.

And why must it be the biggest event of the winter that Buttler (top) sits out rather than the white-ball leg of the India tour, or the ill-fated white ball tour of South Africa or maybe even one of the two IPL’S he will play in?

“What can you say?” said boss Silverwood. “We’ve decided to rest and rotate – we’ve decided we need to look after the players.

“So I’d just ask people to understand why we do what we do, we’re resting in the best interests of that player and equally to get the best out of them long term. I’m perfectly happy we’re being proactive and factoring in breaks.”

Of course white-ball captain Eoin Morgan might argue as to where a T20 series against India sits in the priorities in a T20 World Cup year.

But as one of the greatest T20 cricketers, Buttler’s contributions in October were not going to change based on missing a few games in March.