Quiet Confidence: How Jos Buttler Has Made The England Team His Own

Having been England’s white ball captain for over a year now, Jos Buttler is about to lead England into his first 50 Over World Cup in the role. With murmurings that this is simply ‘Morgan 2.0’, I look at the ways that Buttler has made the team his own, in characteristically understated fashion.

A Different Goal

When conversation turns to Buttler’s captaincy there is an argument that keeps popping up, the argument that he has failed to stamp his mark on the England setup. What follows is usually a comparison with Eoin Morgan and even Ben Stokes, two figures famed for the major overhauls they brought with them.

To make this comparison is to ignore a very clear difference between all involved, Buttler is the only one who came to his role with England already in a position of strength. In contrast, Morgan had to deal with the abject failure of 2015, and Stokes a Test team that could hardly buy a win.

Jos Buttler’s captaincy has certainly been the least dramatic in terms of narrative, with much of this coming down to the fact that his team is consistently competitive. What the criticism also fails to grasp is that Buttler has already been successful when it comes to the most important part of being a captain, winning something. With a T20 World Cup secured in his first tournament as captain, Buttler deserves credit for the simple fact he captained his side to glory.

Usually I’m hesitant to give too much credit to a captain for what is certainly a team effort, but 2022 is a great example of a captain leading by example. Buttler scored the fourth most runs of any player (225) at an average of 45, with his semi-final performance against India as swaggering a performance as any.

As captain so far Jos Buttler has done the two things you would want him to do. Win, and score runs. But, to focus on just performance would be to miss the bigger point. Jos Buttler has in fact made several changes to the England white ball setup compared to that of Eoin Morgan.

Bat First

At any given coin toss involving Eoin Morgan you never needed to spend too much time trying to guess the decision. We’ll have a bowl, thanks. An evergreen sentiment, the consistent decision to field first and chase a total defined Morgan’s England. In simple terms this was a team who challenged teams to do their best, backing themselves to go even bigger.

In his first few games as captain, and on the occasions he was a stand-in, Jos Buttler followed this trend. But the events of the 2022 IPL sparked a change in Buttler’s philosophy. With Sanju Samson seemingly cursed to lose coin tosses for the rest of his existence, the Rajasthan Royals found themselves frequently put in to bat first. What followed was one of the most prolific run-scoring campaigns in T20 history. Jos Buttler scored four centuries, three coming from batting first.

Since that tournament, Buttler has shown a much greater willingness to win the toss and bat first. Given the significance that viewers and teams often award the toss in white ball cricket, it is surely of note that Buttler has gone in the opposite direction to his predecessor. Instead of backing batters to chase, Buttler backs his bowlers to defend.

Such a change will be interesting in an ODI World Cup, especially when we consider the oft-noted concept of ‘scoreboard pressure’. In knockout cricket teams can find themselves struggling to chase very reasonable totals, England are perhaps looking to escape this issue by taking the choice to bat first.

With the World Cup in Indian conditions where Buttler’s team thrived batting first, expect to see this trend continuing.

Bowling Tactics

Having touched on how Buttler puts plenty of responsibility on his bowlers, it must also be noted that he captains them differently to how Eoin Morgan did.

Much like Eoin Morgan would always want to bowl first, he also opted for fairly settled allocations for his bowlers. Across a bilateral series or tournament you would see the same players bowling in near enough the same overs. The benefit of this is that it creates clarity, in a Morgan team it was very clear what everyone’s role was.

Where Buttler differs is his willingness to improvise when a bowler gets off to a fast start. As a captain, Jos Buttler is happy to give an opening bowler an extra over in the Powerplay if they are taking wickets. In the final of The Hundred this summer, Josh Little was given 15 of the 25 available balls, an attempt by the captain to go for the kill. In contrast, Jofra Archer would routinely be held to two overs for England even when getting results.

A slight difference, this discredits the idea that Buttler’s captaincy lacks boldness. Giving a bowler an extra over on the fly might require rebalancing later in the innings but it is about capitalising on an opening. The willingness to do this is perhaps explained by the preference that Buttler also has for filling the team with bowling options.

If you look at an England white ball team now you will likely remark on how many players in the starting eleven offer something with the bat and ball. It is a team chocked full of all-rounders. Whilst this is in some part down to the shift Ben Stokes has made from all-action player to specialist batter, Buttler tends to line up with one fewer batter than Morgan did.

Whilst the 2019 team had a top six mainly focused on batting, Buttler’s appearance at 5 in 2023 shows a shortening of the top order. Instead of Moeen Ali coming in at 7, he has been promoted to 6 with Livingstone next.

This is another way that Buttler has made the team his own, changing the balance across the team. More specifically, Buttler has packed the team with spin options. From 1 to 11 you will see Joe Root, Moeen Ali, Liam Livingstone, and Adil Rashid.

Capable of turning the ball in different directions and fashions, it will be fascinating to see how these options take to Indian conditions. If England find themselves on a pitch offering turn, they certainly have a number of players to turn to.

Overall, it would be unfair to criticise Jos Buttler in terms of his showings as captain. As a man often having to deal with players unavailable, his record often gets more criticism than it deserves. With one trophy already and some clear changes from the Morgan era, I look forward to seeing how Buttler’s team fares at the World Cup.

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