SA vs ENG | Not quite performing to standards I need to, admits Jos Buttler

As the list of injuries and illness do not seem to stop for England, the form of Jos Buttler has added salt to their wounds. Buttler has been a regular in the Test team now and one of his important roles was to bat with the tail and provide those extra runs in the end which always came in handy. However, he has had a poor run in Tests of late and with England trailing 1-0 in the series, he understands that he has not done justice to his selection so far.

"I feel like I’m not quite performing to the standards I need to,” Buttler was quoted as saying by ICC ahead of the New Year’s Test against South Africa.

“I’m trying to improve that and affect games in positive ways for England,” he added.

In the 38 Tests that Buttler has played for England, he has scored 2046 runs at an average of 33 and he scored only 3 fifties in 2019. This poor run of form has caused problems to an England batting unit that is already missing the services of Ollie Pope, and now will be missing Rory Burns due to an ankle injury.

Buttler admitted that his defence has been shaky, and kept the door open for himself to sport a more aggressive avatar in the forthcoming Tests.

“Since I’ve come back into Test cricket I’ve tried to trust my defence for longer periods of time,” Buttler said.

“I’ve been able to do that on occasions. But (playing my natural game) is certainly something I’m trying to work out. You can do a lot of work in the nets but I’m spending a lot of time thinking about the game when I’m in my room or trying to visualise things or work through them in my head. Moving forward I’ve got to play the situation, but I will try to be a bit more positive,” he added.