\n<\/p>\n
The most drastic option also appears the least likely.<\/p>\n
Buttler, who signed a new two-year central contract last year, has been a mainstay of England’s white-ball teams for more than a decade. Could they really leave him out entirely for a World Cup semi-final?<\/p>\n
That encounter may be at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium, where Buttler has made scores of 94 not out, 89 and 116 in the IPL.<\/p>\n
Ben Duckett is the spare batter in England’s squad – another man struggling for form.<\/p>\n
Duckett is averaging 18.88 across 12 matches this winter across all formats and was out for a first-ball duck in his most recent innings at the start of the month.<\/p>\n
Leg-spinning all-rounder Rehan Ahmed would be a left-field replacement. That would be a massive call.<\/p>\n
Perhaps Friday’s match against New Zealand, effectively a dead rubber for England given they are already through, is the perfect, pressure-free opportunity for Buttler to help make the hierarchy’s decision an easy one.<\/p>\n
“Who is writing Jos Buttler off?,” said former England spinner Alex Hartley.<\/p>\n
“If you are, get a grip. He is one of those players where it takes one shot crunched through the covers and he will be back.<\/p>\n
“It would be a worry if England were not winning games. I have no doubt when push comes to shove Jos Buttler will be OK.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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The most drastic option also appears the least likely. Buttler, who signed a new two-year central contract last year, has been a mainstay of England’s white-ball teams for more than a decade. Could they really leave him out entirely for a World Cup semi-final? That encounter may be at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium, where Buttler has<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cricket"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}