6 minute read To misquote Ferris Bueller for the Nth time: T20 moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you risk being a cricket website that thinks Joe Root’s still in the England squad. Actually, that mangled quote isn’t even true. T20 doesn’t in fact move
Continue readingTag: Jos Buttler
Remember Jos Buttler? He’s almost certainly played his last Test… hasn’t he?
3 minute read As Jonny Bairstow prepares to play his 100th Test and Ben Foakes closes in on a nice fresh cap for his 25th, we can’t help but think of the third prong of England’s red ball wicketkeeping trident – the missing prong, the ghost of a prong – Jos Buttler. In
Continue readingThe chaotic way England dropped Jason Roy gave a powerful message to the rest of the team
7 minute read Sometimes it’s not about the logic of dropping one player in favour of another; it’s about the message you send to everyone else who hasn’t (yet) been dropped. England talk about playing with conviction, yet coach Matthew Mott and captain Jos Buttler have demonstrated little but uncertainty with this 2023
Continue readingIt’s a particular type of recent ODI experience Jos Buttler’s England lacked – the experience of playing together, winning games
4 minute read England haven’t played this format much recently, so you can forgive them for looking at bit rusty against a guy who hasn’t bowled in an ODI for almost four years. “It’s raining cats and dogs in Sri Lanka so I’ve not been able to play much,” said Angelo Mathews after
Continue readingJos Buttler is lost in Dharamsala’s sandy outfield
2 minute read Not to get all Meatloaf about this, but England would do anything to save a run. But they won’t do that. No, they won’t do that. If you haven’t already seen, England are due to play in Dharamasala tomorrow. It’s possibly the most beautiful ground in the world if you
Continue readingWhen Jos Buttler says an Australia v England series is irrelevant, is that enough?
4 minute read England have just finished playing Australia in a one-day series. The first match came three days after the T20 World Cup final and the man who went on to captain England in the second game called that scheduling “horrible”. With the bare minimum diplomacy, England’s coach said the series was
Continue readingFive Test wicketkeepers who quite often didn’t actually do any wicketkeeping
6 minute read If you want to be highly regarded as a wicketkeeper-batter, one of the smartest things you can do is not actually keep wicket in a whole load of Test matches. At what point do you become a wicketkeeper? How frequently do you have to don pads and gloves and chunter
Continue readingJos Buttler took some fine catches and made a double ball hundred but all we’ll remember is the terrible drop and when he trod on his stumps
2 minute read History is not just written by the victors. When it’s a particularly bad defeat, the losers make doubly certain to note down all the really awful moments too. Jos Buttler made a fourth innings double ball hundred in Adelaide. In a series where England have so far displayed almost zero
Continue readingEngland’s two key match-ups for any T20 match: Jos Buttler v Anyone and Adil Rashid v Anyone
2 minute read You’re no longer allowed to write about T20 without referencing “match-ups” so that is what we’re going to do. Brace yourselves for some IN DEPTH ANALYSIS. In the unlikely event you’re not au fait with the concept of the match-up, it’s a tactical thing where you try and pit a
Continue readingButtler, Bairstow and Foakes – England’s embarrassment of adequacy
3 minute read “I’m putting a team together for a job.” “You son of a bitch. I’m in.” In heist movies, whenever they put a team together, everyone’s always the best of the best; the best there’s ever been. You never make do with members of your heist team. You never settle. You
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