He has the same destructive streak as Kevin Pietersen, and must now be central in all formats...
It was less than 12 months ago that Jos Buttler’s calamitous form saw him dropped from England’s Test side.
Buttler couldn’t tell one end of the bat from the other by the time James Taylor took his place and Jonny Bairstow assumed the gloves for the third Test against Pakistan last November.
Just 156 runs in 12 Test innings – at an average of 13 – left the 26-year-old wondering, by his own admission, whether “it will come back”.
“It can be pretty tough when you’re going through that,” he said that month.
“I almost made it a harder game than it needs to be. I think that’s one of my biggest challenges – just get back to being myself.”
But such has been the brilliance of Buttler since, it is difficult to imagine the previously withdrawn, hesitant version.
The one-day leg of the tour of the UAE – in the month that followed – was the catalyst.
A match-winning 49 not out was a warning sign.
But slaughtering Pakistan for the quickest England ODI century of all time in the next match – off just 46 balls – was the thumping re-announcement of a batting freak.
His subsequent numbers alone are impressive.
An ODI average of 69 since that hundred is the best of any batsman in world cricket to have played 10 or more matches.
Data, though, cannot do this phenomenon true justice.
Sit any cricket cynic down in front of a video of Buttler batting and watch their addiction rocket.
It is the deceptive power and supple wrists. The belt down the ground followed by the eye-of-the-needle nurdle.
You schedule your day around Buttler batting – a power over the country that no other English cricketer has possessed since Kevin Pietersen.
The two – albeit different, technically – share the same streak of destructive genius.
And with seven consecutive Test matches beginning on Thursday, England will surely hand Buttler an overdue recall.
Having whacked international bowlers around the park in coloured clothes, the Lancashire man might question why he was on his sofa as James Vince and Gary Ballance faltered their way through the 2016 Test match summer.
Selectors may insist on red-ball form and experience, but Buttler’s talent should transcend such stipulations.
It is not as if he has no Test record to speak of, anyway.
Buttler did, after all, score five half-centuries in his first eight longer-format matches for his country.
That he was asked to captain the ODI side in Bangladesh in the absence of Eoin Morgan showed the regard he is held in by the England management.
Now is the time for them to further reflect how good he really is.
They must embrace Buttler’s artistry by committing to his future in all three formats.
