Buttler breaches dam with show of restraint
T20 specialist displays new maturity in first Test century, writes Tim Wigmore at Trent Bridge
Just after he had batted for 50 overs in a Test for the first time, Jos Buttler received a ball on his hips and flicked it through fine leg for four. He removed his helmet and looked to the sky: a cricketer locked in his own private bliss of fulfilment. Buttler had a Test century for England. “It was a huge moment for me,” he said. “You can’t underestimate that feeling.”
Buttler defended with great care, left the ball assiduously – he left a higher proportion of deliveries than in any of England’s previous 30 Test centuries – and eschewed the audacity that has made him one of the world’s most coveted limited-overs cricketers. And yet, through shot-selection, timing and power, Buttler still scored with alacrity: a strike rate of 60, with 21 boundaries.
When Buttler was recalled at the start of this summer, there was excitement about what cold, brutal violence he might bring. And in two mesmerising passages: against Pakistan at Headingley and in the first innings at Trent Bridge, when Buttler only had the tail for company – he sooner resembled an Indian Premier League star than one playing in a Test. Yet these have been the exceptions. Mostly Buttler has batted with restraint – and a restrained Buttler still translates into rapid scoring for almost anyone else.
In the despair of England’s two crushing Test defeats this summer, Buttler has stood out: not for the style in which he has played, but the substance. In the second innings at Lord’s against Pakistan, Buttler made 67 in 138 balls; here there was 106 off 170 balls. But the scrupulous judgment – at one stage he and Ben Stokes played out four consecutive maidens – was an addition to Buttler’s elan, not a substitute for it. A clip off Mohammed Shami, jumping up on his toes and flicking a ball on off stump through the leg side for four, was particularly pristine.
It was an innings many had assumed would never come – that Buttler’s full-blooming talent would be pushed inexorably into T20 specialisation, a victim of cricket’s climate change. And so there was more poignancy than is normal at the moment of a maiden Test century. It felt like a moment of triumph not just for Buttler, but for Test cricket itself: the format is enriched if such a resplendent talent thrives here, just as in the limited-overs formats.
“A few months ago it seemed a million miles away,” Buttler said. “I was never sure if I’d ever play Test cricket again. It proves to me I can do it. I’ve definitely remembered how hard Test cricket is, having come back into it. It’s tough. It tests you in all sorts of ways. It’s definitely the proudest moment in an England shirt.”
The dam has been breached. We do not know what might come next, but finding out should be a thrill: Buttler believes he is “getting closer” to playing with the same role clarity in Tests as in limitedovers games. He declared that it had given him “a lot more fulfilment” than any of his multifarious achievements in limited-overs – not because he values those formats less but because it had taken him so long to get a Test century.
The past two days have felt seminal in Buttler’s Test career: not just his maiden Test hundred – coming at six, rather than seven – but also, owing to Jonny Bairstow’s injury, donning the Test gloves for the first time since 2015. The sense is that, for all the allure of Buttler as a specialist No 7, England will get more from his talents by entrusting him with the gloves – which could enable Bairstow to bat higher – batting him in the top six, or even both. Rather than England’s luxury adornment now, Buttler can move to being at the heart of the Test side. This innings brimmed with the tantalising possibilities ahead.
When he had reached his century, Buttler slowly and deliberately marked his guard again: the action of a man not sated by Test cricket, but wanting more.