Jos Buttler: 'Bilateral series can't just feel like practice games'

You had a tough season as England captain, eventually stepping down from the post. Are you now enjoying playing for your new team, Gujarat Titans ?

The results with the England team were weighing pretty heavy on me. Having stepped down as captain, that’s freed up a lot of energy and space in my head. Coming to a new franchise has been something really exciting as well. I turned up with lots of motivation to play well for a new team and settle in quickly. The atmosphere here has been amazing. I feel very comfortable with the leadership group — Vikram Solanki, Ashish Nehra and Shubman Gill have really helped me settle in. I’m just enjoying focusing on my batting and wicketkeeping.


Can you correlate IPL form with form in international cricket?
I think there’s a pretty strong correlation, to be honest. The IPL is of an incredibly high standard. It’s the highest-standard franchise tournament in the world. The strength and depth of Indian cricket is unmatched, and you’ve got all the best overseas players playing here. Over time, it’s shown that people who’ve performed in the IPL have performed well in international cricket too.


For white-ball specialists like you, how do you see the future of bilateral series , with so many leagues being played in an already-packed calendar?

There’s so much cricket now, lots of different opportunities that were never there for the players. IPL obviously has a two-and-a-half month window. There’s usually an ICC competition every year now as well. So, you’re sort of down to around eight months of cricket to squeeze in everything else. I think bilateral cricket should be about the best playing against the best, as opposed to just feeling like practice matches. It’s about finding a way to have the right context for it, about finding ways to keep it relevant and competitive.


What do you make of all the talk about ‘ Bazball ’?

I think there’s a misconception that ‘Bazball’ is all about aggression and taking risks. If you spend time around Baz (England coach Brendon McCullum) and listen to him talk, he’s finding ways to take pressure off you as a player and free you up to make good decisions. He wants people to be able to soak up pressure when you need to and put pressure back on the opposition when you need to. It’s not all crash, bang, wallop. There’s more method to it.


Even with Nehra at Titans, he is a really fun guy to be around. He creates a great atmosphere for the team and he very much talks about assessing conditions and playing accordingly. That’s literally as simple as it is. And when you break cricket down, that is actually all you need to do.


When you look at the younger generation of players like Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill and Harry Brook, do you think there will be more selection for longer formats based on T20 performances?

The names you mentioned are fantastic players with incredible basics that will serve them well in T20 and Test cricket. The best players in the world for me are the guys who can play all formats and play according to the conditions and be successful in every format. You think of AB de Villiers, who was amazing in T20s and Tests. Then there are Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. You don’t necessarily need to look for specialists.


What do you make of the obscenely high scores in white-ball cricket ?

You always want to see a good contest between bat and ball. The batters are taking more risks than they used to. It’s a 12-a-side game now with the ‘Impact Player’. In this tournament, you thought every score was going to be 250-plus. In the last seven or eight games, I think only one team has got 200. It’s about playing the conditions and playing what’s in front of you. You can’t go into matches with preconceived ideas. I’m sure we’ll see very, very high scores again at some point in this season. We’ll also see some lower scores. The bowlers are fighting back a bit, too.


You talked about the ‘Impact Player’ rule here, which is different. You also play in The Hundred, which has different regulations. How challenging is it to hop such different leagues?

I like the little nuances in different games. They keep it interesting. At this stage of my career, it’s nice when there are little things thrown into a game. The Hundred is only 20 balls different to T20. The ‘Impact Player’ is a big change, obviously.