"Incredibly selfless" - Brendon McCullum hails Jos Buttler ahead of his final white-ball game as England captain

England coach Brendon McCullum has hailed Jos Buttler as the latter prepares to captain the national team for the last time on Saturday. McCullum praised the keeper-batter's selflessness and asserted that he remains a vital player for them.

With England suffering a group-stage exit in Champions Trophy 2025, Buttler has decided to step down as the white-ball skipper. He will finish his tenure by leading against South Africa on Saturday in Karachi. Although the keeper-batter skippered England to T20 World Cup win in 2022, they have been woeful in the following three ICC tournaments.

Ahead of the clash against South Africa on Saturday, McCullum said that he hopes to get the best out of Buttler moving forward, as quoted by Sky Sports:

"He's done a significant job, often without the best players available and often around different structures as well. It's incredibly selfless from Jos to step aside and leave the post for someone else. He's still a huge player for us moving forward, I'm sure we will look at ways to get the best out of him so he can have maximum impact."

McCullum threw his weight behind the Lancashire cricketer, stating that he doesn't deserve so much criticism as he is a World Cup-winning captain.

"Jos will have his final game as captain tomorrow. The boys will hopefully put on a good show to send him off from his captaincy journey. I feel incredibly sad for Jos, we've all seen over the last couple of years how much he's invested in captaining his country and trying to get the very best out of those guys. People forget he won a World Cup only a couple of years ago, that can never be taken away from him."

The 34-year-old's job became untenable after successive defeats to Australia and Afghanistan in the eight-team tournament. It put England out of the semi-final race with one game remaining. His returns with the bat have also been mediocre, managing 23 against Australia and 38 against Afghanistan.

---

"There's some really good personnel around us" - Brendon McCullum on England's next white-ball skipper

Brendon McCullum. (Image Credits: Getty)

Addressing Buttler's successor, the former New Zealand skipper said they must take stock of the situation first. He said will consult with the board before arriving at the decision, adding:

"We've got some time to think about that. For us, the news is less than 24 hours old so it's pretty fresh. We've got a bit of time when we get home before we need to make those decisions.

"Rob Key, myself and the team at the ECB will sit down and work out exactly what that looks like and who that person will be - and what help they need to get our results back to the level that we know they should be at. There's some really good personnel around us, some excellent thinkers of the game, very strong leaders."

Despite being out of the semi-final race, Buttler will want to end his captaincy tenure with a win on Saturday.