England white-ball captain Jos Buttler has said that he is willing to leave wicketkeeping if it helps with captaining England better in the white-ball format of the game. Speaking on Sky Sports during England’s third and final T20I against Australia, Buttler said that in case he was fit to play against Australia in the ongoing T20I series, he would not have kept the wickets.
The England captain was ruled out of the T20I series and subsequently from the ODI series against Australia due to a calf injury. In his absence, young batter Harry Brook has been named as the skipper. Liam Livingstone has been roped in as Buttler’s replacement for the series. Earlier, Butter missed out on playing in the T20Is against the Aussies and the Hundred Men’s competition for the Manchester Originals.
“If I was playing in this T20 series, I was going to give up the gloves and commit to being at mid-off and seeing how that felt. Baz stumbled across it with injury preventing him from keeping wicket but then he really enjoyed being at mid-off so that’s something we can talk about. If that’s something that will really help me in my captaincy then it’s something that I am open to,” Buttler said on Sky Sports during the 3rd T20I match.
Buttler last played any form of cricket in the semi-final of the T20 World Cup 2024 against India back in June. The veteran targetted a return in the knockout stages of the T20 Blast, but missed out after faltering in his rehabilitation.
“I am very open to those kinds of things. I just want what’s best for the team and what’s best for the team is going to be me being the best captain I can be. If I have to move from behind the wickets to do that, then so be it,” he further added on the matter.
