In an exclusive interview with Headstrong: An Innings With, England World Cup winner Jos Buttler recalls a conversation with a team psychologist early in his career that preceded his first notable contribution for the senior England side.
You can listen to the full interview with Buttler on the Headstrong podcast, available to listen to on all the usual podcast hosting platforms. Headstrong: An Innings With supports the Ruth Strauss Foundation and is exclusively previewed by Wisden.com.
In a wide-ranging interview that covers England’s World Cup win, negotiating boredom in bio-secure bubbles and his time at the IPL, Buttler pinpoints a specific innings after which he grew in confidence as an international cricketer.
By September 2012, Buttler had played 11 times for England in white-ball cricket but had not yet passed 13. Buttler credits a conversation with Dr Mark Bawden – a psychologist with the England team at the time – with instilling him with confidence before what turned out to be his first Player of the Match performance for England.
“I certainly doubted myself a lot in that first year or so,” says Buttler. “I felt good enough to play county cricket, I’d had some success there but with England I certainly felt nervous and I was doubting myself a bit. It wasn’t until I had a really good conversation with Mark Bauden who was the psychologist at the time.
“I was just saying, ‘I don’t feel like I’m at my best here, I want to show to the dressing room that I belong here but I’m doubting myself.’ We went through the ‘inverted-U theory’ – where do you sit on this line when you’re at your best?
“Excuse my language, but I sort of said when I’m at my best I feel ‘f*** it, just get on with it’ and just play and I don’t question myself. That was where that was born.
“In the next game, I got 30 off about 10 balls against South Africa. That was the breakthrough moment for me, that I could do it at this level. I’ve got the talent, I can do this. It was a huge moment for me, more so for the guys in the dressing room. I felt like I could go back to the dressing room and with the others [thinking], ‘Yep, he’s good enough to be here.’ It wasn’t so much the outside noise I was worried about, more the respect of my teammates.’”
The innings Buttler refers to came during a rain-affected T20I against South Africa at Edgbaston. Buttler came to the crease with just 16 balls remaining in their 11-over innings, yet still managed to blast a 10-ball 32* from No. 5. Buttler was eventually named Player of the Match as England secured a comfortable, series-levelling 28-run victory.
