A home-grown hope - The rise of Jos Buttler

Buttler is transforming into a destructive finisher for England

Under the energetic leadership of Eoin Morgan and Trevor Bayliss, England’s One Day International side is starting to blossom. A team whose players could hardly score at a run a ball, now have a player who holds the record for best strike rate from No.4. And this did not come from a South African import like Pietersen or Kieswetter, but from the Somerset-born Jos Buttler. He is ethnically English, but brutally Sloggish.

223.7 was at what Jos Buttler struck, when he destroyed a bowling attack comprising of world class bowlers including Mohammed Irfan, Wahab Riaz and Yasir Shah at their adopted home in Dubai.

With this innings he went past Mark Boucher’s strike rate of 216.17 in his unbeaten knock of 147 from 68 balls against Zimbabwe in 2006/7 at number.4. This is also way ahead of AB De Villiers’195.08 in his 61 ball 119 against India last month at the Wankhede making Jos Buttler's 223.7 the best strike rate for any individual innings of 100 plus at No.4.

Jos Buttler scored a mind boggling 116 runs from 52 balls in the 4th and final ODI of the English tour of United Arab Emirates. The innings not only went on to give England a record 355-5 total in their 50 overs but eventually lead to their first series win in Asian conditions post- Alastair Cook era.

Their score of 355-5 was not only England’s highest score away from home (bettering their 340-6 against New Zealand in Napier) but also was the highest score for a team batting first in the UAE in the last 6 ODIs, the second highest is a distant 246.

Buttler was rightfully awarded the Man of the Match as he went on to score what was the fastest hundred by an Englishman reaching the milestone in 46 deliveries and beating his own previous record at 61 balls. He also shared the seventh position in the overall fastest 100 with New Zealand's Jesse Ryder. The Fastest ton continues to rest with the South African skipper AB de Villiers at 31 balls.

Azhar Ali, whose leg breaks removed Joe Root and Eon Morgan only managed to fly over long off in an attempt to attack the brutal Buttler. Buttler also managed to lift Shoaib Malik and Wahab Riaz to the deep mid-wicket boundary, apart from sending Wahab Riaz and Mohammed Irfan to the ropes through the ground four times each.

However the biggest victim of the Buttler storm was the all-rounder Anwar Ali who was pulled aerially to deep mid-wicket four times and made to clear long off on another occasion. Of the eleven balls Anwar bowled to Jos he was hit for 42. On the other hand his 43 balls to the other batsmen cost him just 32 runs.

Buttler also benefitted from the poor bowler management of Azhar Ali as he had to face just 2 balls from Pakistan's best bowler in the given conditions, Yasir Shah. It was pathetic to see Azhar Ali not opting to use spinners against a batsman who struggled against spin in the test series. Of the 52 balls he faced Buttler had just 4 balls of spin bowling. Buttler however managed to hit a six of Malik in one of the two balls he faced.

Buttler has managed to score just 34 runs at a pathetic average of 8.50 in the four test innings in UAE and was dropped in the final test. He followed this up with scores of 1 and 11 in the first two ODIs. To rise from here and clinch the Man of the series award is no joke.

Since then he scored 165 runs in 102 balls without losing his wicket. Saving the series on the first occasion with a 49 not out of 50 balls and securing it with a 116 of 52 balls in the second.

So England’s quest for a hard-hitting home-grown talent looks to be over, with the emergence of Jos Buttler. With Alex Hales, Jason Roy and James Taylor making big scores regularly Morgan's men can now start to dream of doing what India did in 2011 and Australia in 2015 – win a World cup at home.

2019 might just be waiting for England.