As expected, Jos Buttler was recalled to the England Test squad, and he will be replacing the injured and severely dispirited Matt Prior as the wicket keeper. Buttler was a part of the touring team to Australia but could never get a game, despite the horrendous form of Matt Prior and the rest of the England players. The next Test of the 5-match Investec Test series will be played at the Rose Bowl ground in Southampton in the south of England, which is a small ground with a capacity of just over 15,000.
Buttler is 23-years old and has already established a great reputation for himself as one of England’s most promising young batsmen. He is already a permanent fixture of England’s one day international team and the Twenty20 squad, having played as many as 33 one day internationals and 36 Twenty20 matches for his country. Buttler is different from the other young England batsmen such as Joe Root, Gary Ballance, Sam Robson and Moeen Ali, because of his sheer attacking prowess. As a batsman, he is more in the mold of Kevin Pietersen, a proven match winner, capable of scoring very quickly, even in Test cricket.
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In fact, it has been a surprise to many observers of English cricket that Buttler was held back from playing Test cricket for England for so long. It is believed that captain Alistair Cook and former head coach Andy Flower were none too impressed with his attitude to the game, which bordered on the overly flamboyant. As a result, Buttler has more or less been seen as a limited-overs cricketer by the England cricket management – which is a shame because somebody like him who is completely unorthodox and fresh is what this England team really needs. England had a great match winner in Kevin Pietersen, who may not have been the most consistent batsman, and didn’t have the most solid batting technique in the world, but on his day was unbeatable and could win any match for England, even from seemingly impossible conditions. It is exactly this sort of X-factor that English cricket needs, and it remains to be seen whether Jos Buttler will be the one providing it.
The last Test at Lord’s was a huge disappointment for England with national selector James Whitaker admitting, “The result of the second Investec Test at Lord’s was very disappointing. One or two of our players had encouraging performances. However, it is vital that the squad learns quickly and arrives in Southampton this week refreshed and ready to perform well in what will no doubt be another tough Test match.”
Mr. Whitaker expressed his support for Jos Buttler and had encouraging words for him. He also lauded the outgoing senior player Matt Prior’s tremendous contribution to English cricket: “Congratulations to Jos Buttler who comes into the squad following some very exciting limited overs performances for England and a good record with Lancashire this season and fully deserves this opportunity. Matt Prior has contributed a huge amount to the England side over the years and should be proud of his record throughout his 79 Tests. He has decided to take time out of the game to work on his fitness and we will continue to follow his progress over the coming months.”
As for Matt Prior, his international career may be as good as finished because of the sheer quality of his replacement. Still only 32 years old, Prior seems to have prematurely aged because of the pressure of playing Test cricket for England, an common affliction that seems to have affected so many of England’s senior cricketers – Graeme Swann announced his retirement, Jonathan Trott will probably never play for England again because of his mental exhaustion with the game and Kevin Pietersen is hated by the England management. Other seniors like Alistair Cook, James Anderson, Ian Bell and Stuart Broad seem to be visibly struggling to get through each Test match.
But Prior kept his options of playing again for England open, saying, “The decision I’ve made is that I’m unavailable for the rest of this series due to my fitness,” he said. “I’m not retiring or anything like that – I would still love to play for England and I still know what I can offer England – but right now I’m not physically able to be at the level I need to be in order to perform at my level. I’m not doing justice to myself and more importantly the team and that is what matters first and foremost.
“I’ve had a combination of injuries that have had an impact. My achilles, everyone knows about and is an ongoing problem and my goal was to get it to a manageable place. I tore my quad before the first Test and my right hand has been beaten to a pulp, but the main issue is the achilles. Now we have the time, I want to be proactive about how we deal with it so I imagine that I’ll have an operation.”
Full England squad for third Test
Alastair Cook (Essex, capt), Sam Robson (Middlesex), Gary Ballance (Yorkshire), Ian Bell (Warwickshire), Joe Root (Yorkshire), Moeen Ali (Worcestershire), Jos Buttler (Lancashire, wk), Ben Stokes (Durham), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Liam Plunkett (Yorkshire), Jimmy Anderson (Lancashire), Chris Jordan (Sussex), Chris Woakes (Warwickshire)
