BUTTLER IS SO KEEN TO FIRE AGAIN
JOS BUTTLER will no longer take a backward step for England after emerging from the Test wilderness.
The recalled Buttler, 27, has been given a license to thrill when he makes his return in the first Test against Pakistan at Lord’s on Thursday.
After an 18-month absence, he will approach his role as a specialist batsman in the same destructive fashion that has made him the world’s most dangerous white ball player.
Buttler said: “For me it is about trusting instincts and not fighting them. In the past I have potentially felt as if I had to play in a certain way or be something I am not.
“So as much as I can, I will be trusting my instincts. That is going to be the best way of helping me be successful.
“For the first half of my Test career I trusted myself better than I did in the Ashes series here in 2015 when I went away from what was working.
“It is an incredible opportunity I have been handed to come back in. I have been asked me to play in that aggressive fashion so that is how I have got to do it.”
Buttler is coming off a hot streak in the Indian Premier League where he recently smashed a tournament-record five successive half-centuries.
But his call-up for the first Test – a wildcard pick by new chief selector Ed Smith – came out of the blue given that he made just four first-class appearances for Lancashire last year.
He added: “It was quite a lot of a surprise. You hear whispers but you always think maybe that race is run and will never happen again.
“You definitely miss it. To get that call the overriding emotion was excitement.”
Buttler, who has played a key role in helping England to the top of the one-day rankings, plans to make the most of being thrown a lifeline in the longer format.
He said: “It is an amazing opportunity that has been gifted to me. It feels like another debut really.”