Jos Buttler: matchwinner with the courage and ability not to become ordinary | Rob Smyth

From the beginning of his ODI career he looked the part and he has now developed into England’s perfect all-weather batsman

Many batsmen look the part as soon as they step into international cricket. Not many do so while barely scoring a run. The start of Jos Buttler’s ODI career was a nightmare – but only if these things are judged on paper. In his first 18 months as an England player, up to the end of the 2013 Champions Trophy, Buttler made 116 runs at an average of 11.60. He was barely more successful in IT20 matches, yet it is not an example of false memory syndrome to say that, even then, he looked a near certainty to make it at the highest level.

The main reason was that he was so different. Like Kevin Pietersen and Eoin Morgan before him, Buttler clearly had not read the memo about how England batsmen were supposed to play in one-day cricket. The difference was that Buttler did not have the eyes of the outsider; he had drawn the same conclusions as Pietersen and Morgan despite a standard English upbringing.

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