Enjoy Jos Buttler's entertainment without ranking him, advices Rohan Gavaskar
Former India player Rohan Gavaskar has opined that people should just enjoy the entertainment Jos Buttler provides without getting into the debate of labelling him the best English limited-overs batsman. He added that Buttler’s skillset and clarity of thought have been the reason for his success.
Jos Buttler has had an important role to play in England’s rise to being one of the best limited-overs teams in the world currently. He further proved his importance by smashing 44 and an unbeaten 77 in the two matches that he played against Australia at the opening slot. The wicket-keeper batsman who primarily bats at No.5 or 6 in ODIs has an exceptional record while opening the batting, averaging 51 with at a strike rate of 157.73 in 11 innings.
Former India cricketer Rohan Gavaskar reckoned that it is a bit too early to give the tag of England’s best to someone even of Buttler’s caliber. Gavaskar agreed that Buttler is an exceptionally talented cricketer but in the same breath, he refused to term him England’s best.
“We tend to sort give these greatest of all time tags quite often, Messi is the GOAT, Pele is the GOAT, Maradona is the GOAT. I think it’s wrong to put someone and say he’s (Buttler) the best white-ball cricketer they’ve had. There have been some fantastic cricketers that England have produced even in the 70s and 80s. He’s a quality player, there’s no doubt about it but to rank him? I don’t like doing that. You should just sit back and enjoy whatever he’s doing on the cricket field, enjoy his skills, enjoy his strokes, enjoy the entertainment that he gives us,” Gavaskar told Hindustan Times.
Buttler’s unbeaten 77 in the 2nd T20I prompted Broad to term him as England’s best, putting him in the category of world’s best. However, Gavaskar opined that Buttler still has to perform consistently at the top for a longer period of time to be compared with the likes of Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, David Warner, and Aaron Finch. Explaining the reasons behind Buttler’s success in limited-overs cricket, Gavaskar added that it has a lot do with his skillset and clarity of thought.
“If you look at someone like Warner, Rohit, or even Finch, they’ve unbelievable numbers. And Buttler will be up there but these guys have been doing it for a lot longer at the top of the order. Buttler has just started to open. This is not to take anything away from him, I think he’s a fantastic cricketer,” Gavaskar said.
“Buttler has the clarity of thought. He’s got a very clear game plan in his head. He knows exactly how he’s going to approach his innings. He knows whether to go from ball one or to build an innings gradually after assessing the pitch. And obviously, he’s got the skillset, you can have as good a game plan or a clear head but if you don’t have the skillset to back it up, it’s of no use. He’s got enormous skills in white-ball cricket. He’s got a wide range of strokes, he’s innovative.”
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