Arguably the biggest story from England’s winning draw against New Zealand A at Whangarei was the performance of Jos Buttler. He kept well by all accounts and scored vital runs when the team needed it.
Jos’s 110 was just his second first class hundred since 2015. The other one came in August 2018 against India at Trent Bridge. He now has 6 red ball hundreds to his name in 163 first class innings.
The big question is whether Jos now has the maturity to score multiple Test hundreds for England? Personally I think he does. Although his average of 36 under Joe Root’s captaincy is solid rather than spectacular, I’ve been relatively impressed with him since his controversial recall even though I opposed it at the time.
Buttler generally looks composed at the crease these days, has no glaring technical deficiencies, and he’s shown on numerous occasions that he can dig in and bat time. Those who still portray him as a stereotypical white ball biffer simply haven’t been paying attention.
Now that Buttler is settling into a clearly defined role – the traditional batsman-keeper position at No.7 – I think he’s well placed to succeed. There really was little point in picking him as a specialist batsman, as he’s not quite good enough to bat 5, so it probably works in his favour now that Bairstow and Foakes are out of the picture.
With the wicket-keeper’s spot indisputably his for the time being, Jos can finally focus on his dual-disciplines without looking over his shoulder or worrying about being shunted up the order. I think he’ll thrive now that his role is clear and he feels secure. England’s line-up also has a more traditional, balanced, and comfortable feel now that Jos is back at 7 (with the gloves) and there’s a proper specialist batsman in Ollie Pope at 6.
Having said that, however, I don’t think the debate about Buttler’s place in the side is going to disappear anytime soon. England are blessed with three extremely good wicket-keeping options at No.7 and one could make a compelling case for all of them. Indeed, one could argue that the case for Buttler is actually the weakest of the three.
First let’s look at Jonny Bairstow. Three years ago several good judges were calling Jonny the best England keeper-batsman for years. His record was even better than Matt Prior’s and he looked set to become a fixture in the side for a decade.
Many people, including myself, were convinced that Jonny would achieve great things because his success for England had come on the back of consistent pre-eminence at county level. He’d scored over twenty first class centuries at an average of 45, and George Dobell once described him as possibly the most dominant batsman in county cricket since Graeme Hick.
If one looks at the first class records of Bairstow and Buttler there’s really no comparison. Jonny averages ten runs per innings more, has scored four times as many hundreds, and twice as many fifties. In fact, before this weekend Jonny had made more Test tons than Jos had first class tons.
Unfortunately, however, the Bairstow of three years ago no longer seems to exist. Old Jonny was a better red ball player than a white ball one. He’d made buckets of runs and numerous centuries for Yorkshire in the championship but only three centuries in the domestic fifty over competition. But Jonny had seen England’s white ball transformation under Trevor Bayliss, knew there was a World Cup approaching, and wanted in.
In order to compete for Alex Hales’s place at the top of the order alongside Jason Roy, Jonny deliberately tweaked his technique to help him stay leg-side of the ball and open up the off-side. As a result he learned to drive anything with a hint of width imperiously through the covers. The downside was that he became vulnerable to being bowled through the gate – never a good look for a quality batsman. His defensive method therefore became as porous as Rab C Nesbitt’s string vest.
Although I’d much prefer Jonny to refocus on red ball cricket I just can’t see this happening now. This time last year he smashed 84 off just 24 balls for Kerala Knights (don’t worry, I’ve never heard of them either) in the Sharjah T10 league. And then we saw what he did in the shortened ‘T11’ game two weeks ago. Would you give up a form of the game that’s so lucrative if you were really good at it?
The problem for Jonny is that there’s no guarantee he’ll get his Test place back even if he puts in the hard yards in the nets with a technical coach. Buttler is the man in possession, Ed Smith seems enamoured with the incumbent after making him the flagship selection of his tenure as National Selector, and there’s also the next man up and fan favourite Ben Foakes to consider.
If Jos was somewhat lucky to earn his Test recall in 2018 then Ben Foakes’s international career has been the absolute antithesis. Thus far ‘Rental Ben’ (for he’s never been able to make a place his own) has played 5 Tests and scored 332 runs at an average of 42 with one century and one fifty. That’s a far better average than both Buttler and Bairstow. And yet Foakes was dropped unceremoniously at what seemed like the first opportunity.
For whatever reason Foakes just doesn’t seem like a sexy pick for Ed Smith and the selectors. It’s really odd. Yes he didn’t have a particularly productive 2019 with the bat for Surrey (averaging just 26 with 5 fifties) but this wasn’t completely disastrous when one considers that Buttler’s career first class record is just a few runs higher. What’s more, Foakes overall record in red ball cricket remains very handy for a keeper: an average of 38 with nine hundreds.
Poor Ben’s ODI career just about sums up his predicament really. He’s played just one game, made a match winning 61 not out, and has never been picked again. It’s hard to see how he’ll ever play again with Buttler, Bairstow, and probably Sam Billings ahead of him in the pecking order.
But picking your keeper at Test level (or indeed any level) shouldn’t just be about batting. A wicket keeper is primarily there to keep wicket. And there’s no doubt that Foakes is the best pure keeper in the country. He might even be the best keeper in the entire world.
Unfortunately however Ed Smith, even though he’s someone with a keen interest in statistics and a somewhat contrarian view of the world, doesn’t seem to value Foakes’s ability take every chance (or half chance), not to mention his ability to keep the byes down. Surely this counts for more than a handful of extra runs a keeper might score with the bat?
But perhaps this is being too unkind to Smith and his fellow selector James Taylor. After all, in opting for Buttler over Foakes – in other words preferring run scoring potential over silky skills and dependability behind the stumps – our National Selector is only doing what international selectors around the world have done for decades now: preferring batsmen-keepers to keeper-batsmen. It might suck. But it’s the modern way.
Although Foakes’s many fans might point out that his red ball batting record in both Tests and first class cricket is currently superior to Buttler’s, it’s Jos’s potential as a batsman that captivates so many. Buttler has more natural talent than most specialist batsmen in the world, not to mention batsmen-keepers; therefore Ed Smith is banking on his protege finally becoming England’s Adam Gilchrist.
Will Jos ever become as good as Gilchrist? Somehow I doubt it. Thus far in his test career he’s shown that very common quality of scoring runs against modest Test opposition but struggling against the very best – he averages just 21 in 18 innings against Australia for example. However, having said that I don’t see any reason why Buttler can’t improve. We all know the talent is there. And now he’s shown that temperament and technique shouldn’t be obstacles either.
Another promising sign for Jos is that he recently spent some time working with Marcus Trescothick. Apparently they focused on his balance at the crease and Buttler now feels more comfortable with his red ball game. All this bodes extremely well, and I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t score runs in New Zealand – although South Africa might present more of a challenge in the new year.
Does Buttler deserve to be playing? Probably not. He did little to warrant his Test recall in 2018 and he struggled just as much with the bat in The Ashes last summer as Bairstow. How strange it was, by the way, that Jos was given a pass by the selectors (as well as the gloves) because he was ostensibly exhausted after the World Cup when Jonny had exactly the same schedule and was dropped.
However, whether Buttler deserves his place or not isn’t really relevant at this point. What matters is that Jos is the man in possession, whether we like it or not, and consequently we all want him to succeed.
The bottom line is that England have three excellent options in the newly restored No.7 keepers spot. I have faith in Buttler, I’d have faith in Bairstow if he was playing, and I trust Ben Foakes too. All of them have plenty to offer. I rate each and every one. And it’s a shame that two of them have to miss out.
So who would you pick? Please feel free to add your thoughts in the comments below. Personally I’d be happy with any of them. Although, if I really had to choose, I’d probably opt for Bairstow. But only if it’s Jonny circa 2016 of course.
James Morgan
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I’d pick Buttler over Bairstow if only because I would prefer to go out for a beer with the former!
Uh, India have Saha. Clearly not the best batsman-keeper in India. Australia went through a carousel of keepers. Some of them were dropped for bad batting (and for all the criticism Paine gets for his batting, he still has the second or third highest average for a wicketkeeper in Australia in 130+ years of Test cricket), some of them were dropped for bad keeping. When Wade was dropped the biggest beneficiary was Lyon, who actually started getting catches by the keeper.
South Africa have Quinton de Kock, Bangladesh used to depend on Mushifiqur until recently who might not have been the best keeper in the country (I don’t follow Bangladeshi domestic cricket). And Sri Lanka play a minimum of three keepers (and since their captains hardly last 2 series in a row, I can’t be bothered to check all the 50 odd players they must have picked in the last 5 years), so undoubtedly one of them can keep quite well. New Zealand have Watling.
So it is basically only West Indies and England that have clearly preferred batsmen-butterfingers. And that is simply because a drop averted contributes more than an average of 5-10 runs (net).
So Foakes hands down. Buttler second, and Bairstow perhaps a distant 18th.
There are always exceptions. Saha hasn’t always played for India and has only played about 30 games despite being 35 years old. Dhoni played 90 tests immediately beforehand. What’s more, I’d argue that Paine was chosen for his leadership and squeaky clean image rather than his keeping. Over the last 25 years far more keepers have been picked primarily for their batting than their keeping imho. This is especially the case with England.
The incumbent takes the spot. And Dhoni’s keeping was hardly part-time, especially to spinners. Don’t forget he was the captain too. So, hardly surprising that India did not pick Saha earlier. He is not good enough to play as a specialist batsman, obviously. How often have England not wasted a spot by picking a non-performing captain in the last 10 years alone?).
As for Paine, why would he be picked for being squeaky clean, before Sandpapergate? And if being squeaky clean is something desireable, pray tell me how come Warner and Wade (if we even don’t consider Sandpapergate) keep on representing Australia?
Paine didn’t play for Australia between 2011 and 2017. When he was recalled to the team he wasn’t even keeping wicket for his state side, so he obviously wasn’t picked because he was the best keeper available. What’s more, he only replaced Wade because the latter was struggling for runs. Re: Warner. Paine was made captain when Warner (and Smith) had just been banned for Sandpapergate. He was considered the antidote to Warner. Times have now moved on somewhat obviously.
PS BJ Whatling made his debut for NZ as an opening batsman and didn’t actually keep. His state also often deployed him as an opening batsman early in his career. He also averages nearly 40 in test cricket so he’s obviously a good player. He might be a good keeper too, but to suggest that he’s in the team as a pure keeper doesn’t add up imho.
Australia tried to find the next Gilchrist. None of them lived up to expectations (in any format of the game), though they stuck long with Haddin in Tests. As I noted before Paine has the third highest average for any keeper who has represented Australia already. Miles behind Gilchrist, but other than Gilchrist no Australian keeper has averaged 33 (Haddin at 32.98 is second best, Paine, 31.45 third-best, and 3 runs ahead of Wade who can’t keep wicket properly if his live depended on it).
By comparison England have had Ames, Prior, Bairstow and Knott who all averaged more than Haddin, and Ames was really not that far off from Gilchrist (43.40 with the gloves). Obviously I have never seen him keep.
Paine is hardly a mug with the bat. And when he originally came in, he was there just as much for his keeping as for his batting.
When he was recalled, it was because both Nevill (average 22, and not a great keeper) and Wade (average 28, terrible keeper) failed to impress with the bat. So the selectors must have thought it would be a better idea to pick someone who can at least do one part of his job description (keeping) well , than neither of them well. As I said before, the biggest beneficiary of getting Wade out as a wicketkeeper was Lyon. He actually got catches by the wicketkeeper as a result. That is way more runs saved than Wade would have managed with the bat anyway.
Hardly a ringing endorsement for picking butterfingesr-batsmen. And as noted, the batting stats for Paine are really not as bad as it is made out to be. It is an added bonus if you bat as well, if not better than a specialist batsman, but how many of those have there been? I suspect we could count those on the fingers of one hand.
You could easily argue that sides are so obsessed with batsmen-wicketkeepers, that they forget that the primarily role of the position is to keep. So proper keepers struggle to even get to the limelight because of that. England in this respect is blessed with 18 counties, so there is more chance of keeper-batsmen emerging than in most other places, with the notable exception of India (who have way more FC sides than anyone else).
Paine was already in the team once Sandpapergate hit. Might have been the best out of the non-8 directly implicated players, but he was already there. And obviously, half of those were bowlers (who damn well knew what was going on, but it is not like the authorities really care about cheating), so if the choices are between Khawaja, Shaun Marsh and Mitchell Marsh, all of whom had flattered to deceive for years on end, what do you have to choose from?
As for your argument with regards to Watling, it obviously is ludicrous, and ignores that at the time McCullum was in the side in 2009, who again was not good enough (at the time, his average was in the low 30s) as a pure batsman. Players develop over time, and just as Watling was not the finished article in 2009, McCullum was not the same batsman in 2015 as in 2009, let alone the same keeper. Or same leader.
So to use that as an argument against Watling is misplaced. That is a bit like saying Trescothick / Strauss were always better players than Cook, as Cook was made to bat at #3 in 2006 during the English summer. Feel free to argue that case, but I don’t think even the biggest Cook hater will make such an argument.
You have to consider the context, especially for wicketkeepers, since there is only one man who can actually have the gloves at any given point in time. They struggle far more than incumbents in other positions to get chances. Or do you really think Matt ‘minor 4 inch tear in his hamstrings’ Prior was the best England could have picked in the summer of 2014?
Foakes is a hundred miles in front of Butler (Notts 3rd choice keeper) and Bairstow (Mr Up Himself). Hasn’t had a good summer with Surrey but is a no brainer at test level. Ok Butler scored a ton, against who? NZ A, say no more.
I would prefer Bairstow.
However Butler is in possession and seems ‘in favour’ which leaves Foakes nowhere.
Find the anti-Bairstow stuff from people odd. Quite clear that he is in England’s top 3 or 4 batsmen when on song. Sure, his form has departed and I don’t disagree with him being dropped as he has shown in the past he is more than willing to go away and work on things. Good for him I say! His keeping is also decent. Not Foakes level, but certainly decent.
So it’s Buttler v Foakes. The precious lot from Surrey and the London based press will lord Foakes and say how ridiculous it is that he isn’t playing. Truth is, he isn’t anywhere near Buttler’s level with the bat (a well made century against a woeful Sri Lanka taken into consideration). His keeping is clearly brilliant, but unless we are in the sub-continent I really don’t see any argument for Foakes.
So.. probably agree YJB is the best choice overall, but I fully agree with LJB having the gloves at the moment.
But do you want the best available keeper, or the best batsman/keeper?
As opposed to a wellmade century against a mostly woeful India, at home, when England lost by an innings? Yeah, that was a performance for the ages, in an all time great Test …
I remain to be convinced by Buttler in red ball cricket, am certain that Bairstow now has to be regarded as a white ball specialist, and think that Foakes should be recalled (with Sarah Taylor now retired he is undoubtedly the best keeper of either sex in England). Buttler is a better batter in white ball than red ball cricket, and as for his keeping, to tweak a famous Aussie line “there are probably 15 I would rather see behind the stumps than him”.
I just don’t understand it.
Not only is foakes comfortably the best keeper but he also has a better batting record. Sure you can’t have a pure keeper who can’t bat but foakes at least should be given a chance. If Buttler is that good a batsman he would be able to earn a spot as a specialist bat.
I am so sad to see Foakes sidelined. He is a brilliant keeper and a useful bat. I’m delighted to see Jos Butter in the side at 7, with the gloves and I have no problem with YJB focusing on white ball cricket.
Ideally, what we want is Buttler finding his white ball brilliance in test matches. If it happens he can come in at 5, leaving the wicketkeeping role to Foakes. We will have to see how it goes. Time will tell and I wish Jos the best of fortune for now.
Buttler is overrated. It’s Bairstow for me everytime. End of. Next best is Cox.
Other than Foakes, I think that Cox is the best pure keeper in the country.
A couple of weeks ago, Bairstow smashed whatever he smashed for England against New Zealand. That T10 thing was last year. I sincerely hope he doesn’t want to become a specialist white-ball cricketer, it would be a horrible waste of talent.
You’ve hot the nail on the head when you talk about sexy in regard to our selectors choices. Though with Sibley, Crawley and Denley all featuring as possible test candidates with Burns maybe weaver turned a corner a team last.
To me in test cricket you pick your best keeper every time and that is clearly Foake and many would say there are better pure keepers on the county circuit, but they aren’t classed as all rounders. Of all the great keepers we’ve had in my time only Bob Taylor was a relative rabbit, but only Stewart was what you would call a proper batsman, who could earn his corn in a side without having to keep. As you say Bairstow was the great pretender until he sacrificed technique for sexy strokeplay and despite plenty of practice for England Butler is still no more than adequate. It seems strange to me when you have world class talent at your disposal, which is pretty damn sexy in itself, to ignore it. How many times has Butler cost us runs by missing catches and Stumpings that would be meat and drink to a class act like Foakes.
No one would consider dropping Kane from the England football side because he doesn’t contribute enough outside his goals, yet most of his opportunities are made for him by others, as he’s no Shearer.
As the keeper is clearly the most important member of the fielding side, often being directly involved in more dismissals than the rest of the out fielders put together, you would think we’d go for the best every time.
Sorry about the grammar at the start of this blog. This bloody I-pad chooses the nearest word to the one you’ve spelt wrongly, which on a touch screen can be a frequent problem and I get bored with having to proof read all the time. Typewriters never gave you this headache. If you missed the odd letter it didn’t change the entire word for you, so you could still retain the sense. Technology eh?
No worries Marc. We’ve all been there :-)
The very best keepers lift the team and improve the whole fielding performance. They can make things happen (eg. Stand up to the likes of Curran). And most importantly drop less chances and take more half chances – you don’t want to have to dismiss Steve Smith twice.
I used to believe that it was worth picking an inferior keeper, but when they are batting at 7 (8 on subcontinent when Moeen plays) and you have a good No.8 (Woakes/Curran) I am now of the opinion that you simply pick the best. I am not knowledgeable enough to know if that is Foakes but I am sure it is not Butler or Bairstow.
Some might think that Buttler is losing his charm, but they’re plain right. In fact, he is a big source of inspiration for the young players at our training facility, Jaipuria Cricket Academy. :)
I think they will continue to pick Butler…until he drops Williamson on 0 and he goes on to score a big ton! Foakes is not a rabbit. Pick your best wicket keeper. Also, Foakes is a red ball player so his batting is pure red ball batting. Worthy of the NO.7 spot.