Under Jos Buttler's leadership, England went from dual World Champions to three tournament capitulations on the trot. But, as Wisden Cricket Monthly editor Jo Harman asks, was it all his fault?
There was really no need to pick apart England’s record under his leadership, it was all there in those doleful, pale-blue eyes. Jos Buttler’s captaincy had, in his own words, “reached the end of the road”.
Unlike the skipper who preceded him, whose flinty stare rarely betrayed his emotions, Buttler’s eyes have always been a passageway into his soul. His thousand-yard stare when he dropped a sitter at Adelaide in 2021, giving Marnus Labuschagne a costly reprieve, summed up England’s miserable Ashes tour better than any scorecard ever could. Brain scrambled, tank empty, eyes misty, he made a tortuous 15-ball duck in the same match and played his final Test a couple of weeks later.
Thankfully, Buttler insists that his England white-ball career has distance left to run. And there is surely no chance of Key and McCullum ditching him at this point. His form has dipped in both ODIs and T20Is but, aged 34, he still has much to offer. With the team in freefall, England need Buttler more than Buttler needs them, and whether he makes it to the next 50-over World Cup or not, it’s heartening that he still has the appetite for more, 14 years after his international debut.
The hope is that by lifting the burden of captaincy – and there is no doubt that it had become a burden – Buttler can rediscover the joy and freedom that has been absent from his batting. “I felt like a bit of a zombie,” Joe Root admitted after stepping down from the Test captaincy in 2022. It’s a description Buttler may recognise in himself.
🚨 Jos Buttler has stepped down as England's white-ball captain. pic.twitter.com/VBqSgJ4xze
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) February 28, 2025
Lauded for his leadership at the 2022 T20 World Cup when England flirted with a group-stage exit before powering their way to the title, Buttler has rarely looked comfortable in the role since. England have won only 18 of 45 ODIs under his captaincy, and just three from 12 across the World Cup and Champions Trophy, and their failed T20 World Cup defence last year lacked imagination and direction, ending with a limp semi-final defeat to India.
Typically a generous and thoughtful interviewee, Buttler’s interactions with the press became increasingly tetchy; a reflection of his inability to halt the alarming decline of a formerly champion side.
If there were more compelling candidates to replace him, he would likely have lost his job after last year’s T20 World Cup. Instead, Matthew Mott – a more convenient scapegoat – carried the can, and Buttler limped on, the arrival of Brendon McCullum failing to ignite him or his ailing side.
Contrary to the popular narrative that this England team doesn’t care enough, or doesn’t take the game as seriously as it should, with Buttler it’s likely to be the opposite. He’s always thought unusually deeply about the game – about its processes, its pitfalls – and he’s fascinated by the psychology behind it.
He famously has the words “F**k it” inscribed on his bat handle, a reminder to keep the game in perspective and play with freedom. But the fact that he requires a reminder at all is revealing. It’s hard to imagine Stokes, McCullum or Morgan needing that positive reinforcement.
Buttler has said himself that his propensity to overthink has muzzled his talent at times, contributing to a stop-start Test career which featured flashes of brilliance but was ultimately left unfulfilled. “That sort of conviction to play, no matter what, in that [aggressive] kind of style was something I always questioned myself,” he told Isa Guha in an interview for Wisden Cricket Monthly in May 2023. “It’s not like people never encouraged me to do that. Absolutely they did, and that was the role, but I’d say I never fully committed to that style.”
England’s white-ball sides have shown a similar lack of conviction under Buttler’s leadership, chopping and changing the team in the middle of major tournaments, throwing up wildcard selections (see Jamie Smith to No.3) and letting flimsy data lead them to bizarre decisions (such as opting to field first in their thrashing at the hands of South Africa in the 2023 World Cup – the nadir of a woeful campaign).
While Morgan is remembered as an instinctive captain, he rarely diverted from his tried and trusted formula. Under Buttler, England were never able to find a formula they really believed in.
But how much of that is Buttler’s fault? He may not have the obvious leadership attributes of Morgan or Stokes, but he’s not had much luck either.
The assumption at the time of his appointment was that Buttler simply needed to keep Eoin Morgan’s show on the road: the foundations were rock-solid and the talent plentiful. Buttler intimated as much himself in the previously mentioned interview. “I just want us to continue on the path we are on,” he said. But the cracks had already begun to appear.
Of the 15 ODIs that Morgan captained following the 2019 World Cup, England won only eight, and their T20I record was similarly patchy, losing seven of their last 18 matches under his leadership.
The Brown to Eoin Morgan’s Blair, Buttler’s captaincy began when the landscape was rapidly changing around him – with many of the consequences beyond his control. While things could only get better after a humiliating 2015 World Cup campaign, giving Morgan the freedom to shape New England in his image, Buttler took charge of a fading force and was never able to forge his own identity as a leader.
He may not have had a global recession to contend with, but England’s white-ball sides were in steady decline. By the time of Buttler’s appointment in June 2022, the sensationally successful opening partnership of Roy and Bairstow was on its last legs, Root’s 50-over form was about to fall off a cliff, Jofra Archer was nowhere to be seen, and no suitable replacement had been found to fill the specialist enforcer role vacated by Liam Plunkett.
Meanwhile, the much-hyped next generation failed to plug these gaps with any authority – particularly in the 50-over format where they had little to no experience – and Buttler was given the task of regenerating the side at exactly the moment we all fell head over heels for Bazball and white-ball cricket became not much more than an afterthought.
Just as Root’s Test captaincy suffered from the ECB’s unashamed focus on winning the 2019 World Cup, Buttler’s stewardship was stymied by their red-ball refocus, leaving a curious sense of hollowness to his tenure; the World Cup-winning skipper whose captaincy will ultimately be remembered for its failures.
The timing doesn’t feel right, but Harry Brook is probably next in line. It’s hard to think of a legitimate alternative. Whoever gets the job will hope for a more favourable hand than the one dealt to Buttler. At least this time, the only way is up.
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