Cooking rivals’ goose the Buttler way!

Virat Kohli, David Warner and Kane Williamson may be bigger stars but Jos Buttler should sit alongside these modern-day giants comfortably at least on current form.

After an excellent Indian Premier League season with the Rajasthan Royals, Buttler hit a blistering century against Pakistan in the second one-day international of the five-match series recently, to show the kind of form he has been in going into the World Cup. He has been terrific, performing consistently for the past couple of years and in 2019, he has already accumulated 321 runs in seven matches at a whopping average of 107.

The right-hander, who recently became a father, averages just over 41 and maintains a strike rate of just under 120. But in England, his ODI average goes up to just under 50 and that should augur well for the Eoin Morgan-led side who are bidding for their maiden World Cup.

Like his team-mate Jason Roy joked the other day, Buttler’s explosive form can indeed be ‘demoralising’ to the top-order batsmen as he makes them look slow.

Roy thinks Buttler is “as good as it gets” and his talent cannot be denied.

“He’s as good as it gets to be honest,” Roy said during the series against Pakistan after Buttler blitzed his way to 55-ball unbeaten 110. “It’s not a shock, in fact it’s getting a bit kind of routine for him to come out and play those sort of innings. He’s almost demoralising the guys at the top of the order that are going at a run a ball and he comes in and just blitzes it. He’s an extreme talent and works hard for it and deserves everything he gets,” he praised.

So impressed was former England captain Nasser Hussain with Buttler’s explosive batting that he put his countryman in the company of Kohli, AB de Villiers, MS Dhoni and Viv Richards.