Why Buttler and Stokes are great advertisement for Test cricket?

Jos Buttler

The emergence of ‘Test batsman’ Buttler

Virat Kohli plays all formats. Kohli is a once in a generation cricketer, isn’t he? He consumes fifties for breakfast and hundreds for lunch! He has the technique and never got tagged as a single-format player right from the start of his career.

How about Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler? T20 stars. IPL’s big buys. They have pummelled bowling attacks into submission in a matter of few balls.

Buttler can bring out the audacious reverse sweep of the very first ball he faces. Stokes can unleash strike after strike at will. And then these two cricketers, who have shown their supremacy in limited-overs cricket thus far, proved to be the biggest advertisement for Test cricket on Tuesday.

It was a story of two flashy, flamboyant and destructive players curbing their natural instincts for a period of 57.2 overs against a top quality Indian bowling attack under trying conditions. Buttler, featuring in the England side as a specialist batsman, did justice to the middle-order batsman’s tag.

Buttler’s hands that have reached out on numerous occasions to slice, carve, scoop pacers with disdain over the covers region were, for a change, shouldering arms ball after ball. Test batsman Buttler knew his challenge. It was about batting as many balls as he could.

Probably, Buttler, who smashed his maiden Test century, walked onto the field requesting the scorer to remove the strike-rate column when he batted.