Jos Buttler is arguably one of the best T20I batsmen from the English team, who has also helped them to win 2nd ICC Men’s T20I World Cup in 2022 with his leadership skills. Apart from being a destructive and handy batsman up the order, he is a brilliant athlete behind the stump, who has saved a lot of runs and picked wickets with his agility. But do you know the journey of the England Captain, who started playing at the age of 13 from Somerset’s Youth team? Through this article, we are going to talk about Jos Buttler’s incredible journey in international cricket from 2011, which made him one of the best T20I batters in the world.

Joseph Charles Buttler was born on September 8, 1990, in Taunton, United Kingdom. He was educated at King's College, Taunton, where he displayed his early talent in the Gentleman’s Game before playing for Somerset's youth teams, appearing at Under-13, Under-15 and Under-17 levels. Later, He made his senior club cricket debut for Cheddar before moving to Glastonbury in the 2006 season, aged just 15, taking three catches and 15 runs as a wicket-keeper batsman. In the same year, he made his first appearance for Somerset Second XI, scoring 71 in the second innings, and taking six catches in the three-day match against Nottinghamshire Second XI.

Playing for his college team and finished the 2006 season with the school's leading batting average, scoring 447 runs at an average of 49.66. However, he got the limelight in 2008 when he scored 227 not out during a record-breaking opening stand in a 50-over national schools game, adding 340 with Alex Barrow. After his incredible performance, the English batsman made his first-class debut for Somerset in September 2009, replacing the injured Justin Langer for the County Championship match against Lancashire, scoring 30 in his only innings. He made his maiden first-class century in his fourth County Championship match by scoring 144 runs. In his next game, he scored his debut List A half-century against Sussex. Buttler joined at the crease when Somerset were 4 wickets down on the score of 109 runs, requiring 183 more runs to win off 129 balls. He put on a partnership of 158 runs to win the match by making 69 in 53 balls. It was also recorded as a new record partnership for the fifth wicket against Sussex.

International Career

After representing England team in under-17s, under-18, and 19 teams where he impressed everyone by performing well he was picked in in September 2011. Later, he made his ODI debut against Pakistan in UAE in 2012,  where he got out on the second ball of the match. However, Buttler didn’t lose belief in his ability as in the T20I match against  South Africa at Edgbaston, he came to the crease when the England cricket team were 3 wickets down on the score of  64 runs with only 16 balls remaining. He showed "a brutal display of power hitting", raising the final score to 118/5, with Buttler hitting 30 runs from one 32-run over from Wayne Parnell, which was recorded as the second most productive over in International T20.

In early 2013, Buttler became the first-choice wicket-keeper for the England team, in replacing Kraig Kieswetter, he was picked up in the squad of 2013 Champions Trophy and 2014 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. However, his maiden ODI century came against Sri Lanka at iconic Lords in May, scoring 121 in 61 balls with nine fours and four sixes, the then-fastest century by any England batsman.

In the year 2016, he scored the fastest fifty from England team in ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2016, where he scored an unbeaten 90 runs against Pakistan as part of an England record score of 444/3. However, now both records have been broken.

Controversies

During the fifth ODI of the series against Sri Lanka at Edgbaston, Buttler was controversially 'Mankaded' by Sri Lankan spinner Sachithra Senanayake, leading to a big controversy between the two teams. In which England captain Alastair Cook expressed his disappointment, stating: "I've never seen it before in a game. I was pretty disappointed. If he was properly trying to steal the single then I could possibly understand it. But he was half a yard out of his crease.

In the year 2016, during the 2nd ODI game against Bangladesh, Buttler was involved in a heated exchange with numerous Bangladesh players after being dismissed by Taskin Ahmed. On he was aggravated by the opposition's excessive celebrations, turned to confront them, resulting in him being ushered away by the umpires. Following the incident, he was kept away by the International Cricket Council (ICC) and received one demerit point, while Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza and Sabbir Rahman were each fined 20% of their match fees and given a demerit point.