The wicketkeeper-batsman Jos Buttler, who has quashed all the doubts of his place in the Test team after scoring an impressive century in the first Test against Pakitan in the recently ended series, has England white-ball captain Eoin Morgan’s faith. The skipper has confirmed that Buttler will open the innings for them in the T20I series against Australia scheduled to start from Friday.
Morgan said that the team management doesn’t feel that there is anything wrong to go with Jos Buttler and Jonny Bairstow as the opening partners. Along with Buttler and Bairstow, Jason Roy will form a strong top-order, as per Morgan. He explained that if any of the three in the top-order bats till the middle overs, England will be in a strong position.
“Yes, he will (open), with Jonny (Bairstow). Like I’ve said before, we will continue with this until we feel the need that it’s not working,” Eoin Morgan confirmed as quoted by Sky Sports ahead of the opening T20I on Friday.
“We feel that Jason (Roy), Jonny and Jos are three of our greatest-ever white-ball players – unbelievable strikers of the ball, batsmen you do not want to bowl against – so if one out of the three of them gets going past the first six overs of the powerplay and into the middle overs, it puts us in a really strong position for the last 14.”
Jos Buttler will more influence if bats as an opener: Eoin Morgan
Jos Buttler is the middle-order batsman but Morgan feels that the wicketkeeper’s best will come out when he bats at the top order. He said that Buttler can have a massive influence if batting as an opener.
“We always pose the question of, ‘how do we get the best out of all of our players?’, and when you talk about those three guys specifically, it’s more obvious with Jonny and Jason batting at the top of the order,” Eoin Morgan added.
“But, trying to get the best out of Jos, at the moment we feel the more balls he faces, the more influence he can have on the game.”
However, Eoin Morgan won’t feel shy to push Jos down the order if the combination doesn’t work.
“If it gets to fine-tuning things down the line and that hasn’t necessarily worked out, we can always fall back on Jos in the middle order,” he added.
England is not quite a full strength for the T20I series, with Jason Roy injured and Ben Stokes still unavailable for family reasons as his father battles brain cancer.