London, Mar 19 (UNI) England batter Jos Buttler is hoping his side’s recent ICC Men’s T20 World Cup campaign won’t be the last time he represents his country.
Buttler was well below his best during the T20 World Cup, with the usually explosive right-hander managing a paltry 87 runs at an average of 10.87 as England were bundled out by eventual champions India in the semi-finals.
Those efforts were a long way from the lofty heights of 2022 when Buttler helped deliver England their second T20 World Cup title in Australia when captain and leaves question marks on the future of the 35-year-old with another two years until the next edition of the 20-over showcase.
England’s next T20I series comes at home in July when they take on India in a five-match series, while Buttler could also get another chance to show his wares when the side tackle Sri Lanka in three fixtures scheduled in September, according to ICC.
There are also ODIs scheduled against those sides during England’s home summer that Buttler could feature in and, while his Test days are well behind him, the former skipper believes he is more than capable of still performing at the top level.
“I hope so,” Buttler said on the ‘For the Love of Cricket’ podcast when discussing his England future.
“I don’t know. Obviously I had a poor tournament, which is disappointing, but I’ve been playing some of the best cricket of my (career) in recent years, so hopefully I can get back to playing my best.
“I certainly have ambitions (to keep playing for England) but no longer being a captain, I’m not a selector and whatever, so what will be will be. Yeah, we will see.”
To tune up for the upcoming home summer Buttler will feature for Gujarat Titans in the upcoming Indian Premier League, where he will be captained by India ODI skipper Shubman Gill and play alongside fellow England batter Tom Banton among a host of other international stars.
Gujarat’s opening fixture at the IPL comes against the Punjab Kings on March 31 and Buttler revealed he has spent most of his time after the T20 World Cup away from cricket in a bid to
help him prepare for the upcoming stint in India.
“I couldn’t have been further away from cricket, which for me at the time was just perfect. It’s exactly what I needed,” Buttler said.
“Obviously the tournament didn’t go personally how I’d have liked it to go, and I just felt like
I needed some space from cricket and not to think about the game, and I could not have been further away from cricket where I was in that week.
“It was really refreshing – I really enjoyed it, a complete sort of release. And slowly but surely, I’d say at the start of this week, (I am) just starting to reflect a bit and have a few thoughts about what’s important to me and my cricket, and why it probably didn’t go quite as I would’ve liked.
“There’s elements (to what went wrong) that I actually don’t really know exactly. For all your best intentions and hard work and efforts to perform, it just didn’t work, and sometimes that’s okay as well. That’s something I’ve had to realise. It wasn’t for a lack of effort. It just didn’t quite happen.”
