How Buttler changed his approach while chasing after experience in BPL
However, the England captain spoke about a conversation between Darren Bravo and Marlon Samuels during the 2017 Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) that made him review his approach while chasing in T20s. Bravo and Samuels were his team-mates in the Comilla Victorians in that edition of the BPL.
England's white-ball captain Jos Buttler travelled to Pakistan with the team but couldn't play in the seven-match T20I series because of a nagging calf injury. The right-handed batter, on Saturday, declared himself "hundred percent fit" and will be taking the field as captain in the three-match T20I series against the T20 World Cup hosts Australia.
Buttler is currently one of the most in-form batters in limited-overs cricket. He has 1195 runs in T20s this year at an average of a touch under 45 and a strike-rate of 151.26. He is England's most important player at the top of the order and a lot will depend on him when England start their World Cup campaign.
Buttler's playing style has changed over the years, so has his playing role. He started his T20 career for Somerset as a lower order batter. Buttler batted at as low as number nine in his debut game in 2009. He moved to the opening position in 2016 and has been a different beast altogether in the new role.
Buttler looks to bat as long as possible as an opener - generally goes hard in the powerplays, focuses on rotating the strike in the middle overs before looking to hit everything out of the park in the slog overs. He has been successful following this process and scored four hundreds this year itself in T20s.
However, the England captain spoke about a conversation between Darren Bravo and Marlon Samuels during the 2017 Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) that made him review his approach while chasing in T20s. Bravo and Samuels were his team-mates in the Comilla Victorians in that edition of the BPL.
"I heard a few guys talk about it like 'there's eight overs left, if we hit five sixes in that time, we'll win the game'. It's just a different way of thinking," he said in an interview with ESPNCricinfo.
"It actually came from Darren Bravo in the Bangladesh Premier League. He was in my team and I remember him running out and saying that to Marlon Samuels. I'd never really thought like that before. I'd always be thinking about how many runs we needed per over. I've just found it's a way of taking pressure off."
That was the only season Buttler played the BPL in his career. Although he had a forgettable experience (average of 18 and strike-rate of 110) with the bat, Buttler actually learned something new and started to approach chases like that.