England’s white-ball skipper Jos Buttler is set to make his comeback to competitive cricket with the upcoming 5-match T20i series against West Indies. The last time Buttler featured for England was back in the T20 World Cup semi-final against India.
After England lost the ODI series 1-2 under the leadership of Liam Livingstone, they would be looking to gain a crucial and confidence-boosting series win over the Windies.
“All sorts of things run through your mind. I think you try and work through everything,” Buttler said speaking about his return from injury.
Brendon McCullum, England’s Test coach, is set to take over as the team’s white-ball coach in January 2025. The development has given Buttler a new lease of life. The pair have been friends for a long time and Buttler revealed that he has also had some chats with McCullum about how he can get the most rewards from his career at the stage that he is currently in.
“I had some chats with Baz (Brendon) about how this stage of your career can actually be the most rewarding. He spoke about his own experiences as captain in the last few years of when he was playing, it is not about you at all, it is about creating that environment and letting people flourish and how seeing them go to the top of the mountain was some of the happiest times of his career as a player. And that is exactly what I want to get out of them,” Buttler said.
The 34-year-old also opened up on how time away from the game gave him a new perspective on the game and the desperation, motivation to come back to the field.
“You get a nice perspective of, when cricket has taken away from you (during time spent away from game), how great it is, how important it is and how much you enjoy it. It is all the little things that you sometimes take for granted that you really miss the most, like being around the changing room, pulling the shirt on. When you start to think about it, it gives you a lot of hunger and motivation to get back, put the work in and get playing again,” Buttler said.
“When you get an injury like that it makes you realise how desperately you want to get back, and the stuff that you really enjoy doing, so that is the mindset of however long I have got back,” Buttler added.
“I think throughout the three ODIs (against West Indies), Jacob Bethell scoring his maiden fifty, Dan Mousley [also] in the last game, you see those guys getting that opportunity and grabbing it which is incredibly exciting. And whatever that means in terms of squads, that is exciting for English cricket,” Buttler concluded.
