Dominic Cork, the former England bowler, wants wicketkeeper-batsman Jos Buttler to play the aggressor’s role in Tests, similar to the one Adam Gilchrist donned for the Australian side.
Gilchrist scored 5570 runs at 47.60 and a strike-rate of 81.95, batting primarily at the No.7 spot and providing late bursts with the bat down the order, which, Cork believes Buttler can do in similar fashion for England.
The England wicketkeeper, who has only one half-century to show in his last 11 Tests, walked in with England at 87-5 in the first innings of the Southampton Test against West Indies, scoring a 47-ball 35.
“My opinion on Jos Buttler is that I want to see him be an aggressive batsman,” he said on the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast. “I know it’s easy to say that and it is not easy in Test cricket to go out and do that because if he goes and flays one wide and nicks it, us four are going to say here that it is not good enough. But remember why is he in the England side, because he is an exciting player, a senior player, he needs to score runs.
The bat Jos Buttler is using for the first Test of the summer at the Ageas Bowl 👌#ENGvWI pic.twitter.com/TFWfrAcHX9
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) July 9, 2020
“We always go back to Gilchrist, we always look at him [and say] he is the role model, but I want to see him [Buttler] play like Gilchrist. I want him to go out there and take it to the opposition because at the moment, that is what England want. They want that sort of exciting man in the middle.
“If you want a gloveman, and I mean a Jack Russell, if you want a Jeff Dujon, you go to [Ben] Foakes, because he is a tradesman, that is his job, to keep wickets. Now if you want to go another way, a batsman who probably is not as good a keeper, you go to Bairstow. So that is your three options.”
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“But for me, Jos Buttler in any side, and I’m talking four-day or five-day, he has to be the guy who goes at the opposition, whatever situation and plays his natural game. What I’m seeing at the moment is a guy who is trying to, technically, turn himself into a Test batsman. I want to see himself turn into a world-beating all-rounder in the middle period and be aggressive.”
