Former England captain Jos Buttler is determined to reassert himself at the top level by staying in the right mental space, insisting his priority is to shed pressure and allow performances to flow rather than force them.
The 35-year-old endured a difficult Twenty20 World Cup, scoring only 87 runs in eight matches as England were knocked out by India in the semi-finals earlier this month.
Buttler will look for a fresh start with Indian Premier League (IPL) side Gujarat Titans, who played the Punjab Kings on Tuesday. He is expected to play a key role during the 2026 camapign.
He acknowledged, however, that expectations have followed him throughout his international career and can be a double-edged sword.
“Expectations can be something that can obviously help you at times because you want to live up to those standards and practice and perform well, but they can be limiting at times,” Buttler told Reuters.
My ambition will always burn strongly to play cricket for England,. I don’t want to look too far ahead to put time frames on anything. We’ll wait and see on that. I’ll always love playing for England
— Jos Buttler
“My own drive and desire to play well is always the same, but managing those expectations with lots of variables in the game of cricket that I can’t control. Making sure I’m in a nice headspace, that I’m not trying to live up to something.”
Buttler said he is not putting pressure on himself about his future, including thoughts about selection for next year’s one-day World Cup, as he focuses on contributing whenever called on.
“My ambition will always burn strongly to play cricket for England,” said Buttler, who captained the side to the 2022 T20 World Cup title. “I don’t want to look too far ahead to put time frames on anything. We’ll wait and see on that. I’ll always love playing for England.”
IPL dominance
Buttler, England’s highest run-scorer in IPL history with 4,120 runs in 121 matches, hopes to replicate his success from last season with Gujarat, who open their campaign against last year’s finalists Punjab Kings on Tuesday.
He praised Gujarat captain and India batter Shubman Gill’s leadership and agreed with the skipper’s view on the impact player rule taking skill out from the game.
“I’m traditional and cricket’s always been 11. It’s brought different challenges, given more opportunities to players in the IPL,” he said of the rule which allows teams to bring in one substitute at any time for a player in the starting 11.
“But when it’s 11 a side, you see the value of all-rounders in the game. Maybe the impact rule dilutes that a bit.”
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Reuters
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