Lucky for me that Shane Warne shifted me up the batting order, says Jos Buttler
Rajasthan Royals newbie Jos Buttler has credited the team management under the guidance of Australia's Shane Warne for promoting him up the batting order, where he has enjoyed success recently. Buttler starred in RR's win against KXIP yesterday where he scored 82 off 58 deliveries.
After Jos Buttler enjoyed success with the Rohit Sharma-led Mumbai Indians in last year’s IPL triumph, he was bought for a whopping Rs. 4.4 crore by comeback side Rajasthan Royals. However, the move seemed like a bad call in the opening stages of the tournament, where the English opener largely batted in the middle-order of the team failing to notch up any significant contributions towards the scoreboard.
It was only recently, that RR team management took a decision to promote the Englishman up the batting order as an opener, after which Buttler has seen a dramatic rise in form. And the batsmen has stated that he was lucky that the RR management made that experimental move.
“I’ve spent a lot of my career, majority batting in the middle order, so I’m very comfortable in that position. I just didn’t play quite well enough in the middle order, so lucky for me that they had a bit of a change of a decision to try opening,” Buttler told WisdenIndia.
Talking about last night’s game, Buttler was happy that his side managed to secure a crucial win in what has been a season of transition for the Rajasthan-based franchise. The English wicket-keeper also praised the in-form KL Rahul for his performance with the bat, although he failed to get the visitors across the finish line as KXIP lost by 15 runs.
“After the first six overs, I thought (it was a) 180-190 pitch and then it changed very quickly and started to slow up and I felt 160-170 was going to be a really good score. We didn’t quite get up to there but we had a fantastic start. Early wickets, we know, in T20s is very crucial. We know in T20 itself with a guy in such great form like KL Rahul, you’re never quite home until the last ball is bowled,” said Buttler.
Rajasthan’s win last night meant that they still have an outside chance of making it to the playoffs provided they win the rest of their four matches. Ajinkya Rahane’s boys will be facing MS Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings on Friday in Jaipur.
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