Buttler’s identity crisis in Test arena adds to confusion
Batsman’s lack of impact in the Ashes feeds sense that England do not know how to use him
All series long there has been a ghost at the Ashes feast. For all his limited-overs effervescence, Jos Buttler can be a curiously anonymous Test cricketer. Throughout vast swathes of this series, indeed, it has been easy to forget that Buttler has been playing at all.
Partly, this reflects the almost unique position that he has occupied in the last two Tests: as a specialist No7 batsman. This position has been rare throughout Test history and, in the modern age, almost obsolete.
Since 2000, no cricketer has had as many as Buttler’s 16 innings at No7as a pure specialist batsman; the few others picked as often primarily for their batting also offered useful auxiliary bowling.
Where there have been specialist No7s before, they have generally been players finding their way in Tests. It can seem as if the same is true of Buttler – only he has just turned 29. Buttler has one Test century in 35 Tests, and five first-class centuries in his entire career. Little wonder that he is now widely viewed as an indulgence England are not good enough to afford. Yet assessing Buttler’s impact since his recall last summer suggests a different conclusion.
During this time, Buttler averages 34.45 – more than Joe Root, and 10 more than Jonny Bairstow.
Buttler has hit nine 50-plus scores since May 2018, which is the most of any England player. Simultaneously a spare part and outscoring his captain: this is the curious case of Jos Buttler the Test cricketer. His limited-overs mastery makes it easy to caricature Buttler the Test batsman as flaky: someone for whom thriving in Tests would merely be a nice addendum. But when Buttler made his maiden Test century against India last year, he declared it as the “proudest moment” of his England career yet. At the time, Buttler described his ambitions for “backing it up and doing it again because it’s not easy”.
While he has so far failed to do that, Buttler has repeatedly demonstrated the application and self-discipline to adapt his whiteball pyrotechnics. Despite batting low down, he has faced 100 balls nine times in the 17 Tests since his recall: the most of any Englishman in this time, and second only to Virat Kohli worldwide. The image of buccaneering Buttler has belied the durability of his defence. Buttler is dismissed every 56 balls defending since his recall, according to Cricviz’s data. In the same time, Ben Stokes is out defending every 83 balls – but Root is out defending every 44, and Bairstow every 36.
Even this series, after a dire start – with hindsight, Buttler should have missed the first Test to recover from the World Cup – he has made three important contributions, helping ensure England saved the Lord’s Test, hauling England over the follow-on mark at Old Trafford, and then batting two-and-a-half hours in the second innings. The snag is that all these innings have only been between 31 and 41: worthy vignettes.
The way in which Buttler has shuffled up and down the order speaks to England’s confusion over him. Excluding times when a nightwatchman was used, Buttler has moved batting position eight times since his recall; he was moved down twice, from No5 to No7, between the first innings at Lord’s and the first at Headingley. The sense is inescapable that England remain unsure of how to use Buttler’s gifts, or whether they trust him in the Test team at all.
For Buttler, the best option would probably be to keep wicket. Buttler has played three innings when he was either the designated keeper or, because of an injury to Bairstow, had kept in the previous innings. In these he hit 106, 21 and 69, suggesting that Buttler’s batting could be elevated by keeping wicket too. This would give him an altogether clearer role; whether it can readily be accommodated with the surfeit of keepers England have is a different question.
There are wider questions, too, about whether players indispensable in T20s and ODIS have time to master Tests – and even whether trying to do so risks reducing their limited-overs effectiveness, though this has not been true of Buttler. The schedule means that Buttler has to learn Test batting in the Test arena alone: he has played only one other firstclass match in the past two years. If England are serious about rebalancing their priorities, with the next two global events T20 World Cups, it would make sense for Buttler to miss ODIS to either rest or play first-class games.
As this Ashes ends, with Buttler pushed up to No6, it is hard not to think of the Oval as marking a critical juncture. It both offers Buttler the chance to turn his Test career into something more substantive or, less palatably, to go two full Ashes series without a half-century. Yet in a way Buttler’s challenge goes beyond scoring runs. It is simply, after 35 Tests, to find a real identity as a Test cricketer.