“He’s earned an opportunity to come and play here”
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England captain Alastair Cook has confirmed that wicketkeeper-batsman Jos Buttler will take Ben Duckett’s spot in the squad for the third Test against India in Mohali, which starts on Saturday.
Buttler last played Test cricket in October 2015, but lost his place in the side to fellow wicketkeeper-batsman Jonny Bairstow. The 26-year-old, though, has been knocking on the door ever since.
While Buttler has been recalled after more than a year, Cook made it clear that Bairstow will continue to don the keeping gloves.
“We’re dealing with a very talented guy and he’s earned an opportunity to come and play here,” Cook said about Buttler. “It’s not ideal circumstances, not having had any practice out here with the red ball or having played a huge amount, but sometimes when the pressure is off you can come out and play and do something special.”
Duckett’s omission from the squad comes after he failed to impress in the first two matches of the series, where he only managed to score 18 runs at a dismal average of six.
Despite Duckett being dropped, Cook insisted that the 22-year-old has a bright future ahead of him.
“He [Duckett] won’t be the only good player that’s been dropped. He has an England future, there is no doubt about it,” he said. “He is a very talented guy with a lot ahead of him and it’s amazing chatting to him saying ‘I thought I was a pretty good player of spin’ and he is a good player of spin, he’s just got an issue which has been found out quite quickly, as can happen in these parts of the world and international cricket.
“So he can go away and address that and come again. It’s just a blip in his career.”
Cook also revealed that pace bowler Chris Woakes has replaced seamer Stuart Broad, who is currently nursing a tendon injury in his right foot, while all-rounder Zafar Ansari is also out with a back injury. The England skipper, however, did not mention who would take Ansari’s place in the team.
With the changes England have made to their squad, Cook confirmed that Buttler would bat at No. 7, while Bairstow will move up the batting line-up to No. 5 and all-rounder Moeen Ali will be promoted up to No. 4.
“Jonny had a glint in his eye when I said ‘we’d like you to move up to five’,” he said. “It gives him more chance to bat. He bats at five and keeps at Yorkshire so he’s used to that role.
“If everything was ideal we’d leave him at seven because it gives him a bit more time to recover but it gives him more time to bat with better batters.”
England trail 1-0 going into the third Test as they were crushed by 246 runs in the second Test in Visakhapatnam.