‘All-rounders are crucial to balancing the side’ – Jos Buttler gives his take on Impact Player rule

Jos Buttler (Photo source: X / Twitter)

Star England batter Jos Buttler has been going through a bit of a rough patch. Buttler is recovering from a calf injury, which has kept him out of action ever since the 2024 T20 World Cup semi-final clash against India in West Indies. In Buttler’s absence, Harry Brook has been named the skipper for England’s five-match ODI series against Australia..

As part of his rehab process, Buttler has been hard at work, preparing for the upcoming assignments and working on his fitness. Meanwhile, Buttler opened up on several issues in a recent interaction, and one of those was the appointment of Brendon McCullum as England’s all-format head coach. It is worth noting that McCullum has only coached England’s Test so far. Recently, McCullum spoke about Buttler’s injury problems, opining that the star batter seems miserable at times.

“I saw that [McCullum’s remarks]; it’s tongue in cheek! I’ve had some good chats with ‘Baz’ and I’m really excited to get the chance to work with him. He was always one of those players that I looked up to. He’s had a huge impact with the Test team, and now, being the all-format coach is great for English cricket,” Buttler told TOI.

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All-rounder not a luxury, but a necessity: Jos Buttler

Buttler was also asked about England’s squad composition for the recent T20I series against Australia. The regular skipper gave his views on the impact player rule as well and how as per him does it impact the future of all-rounders in the sport.

“Even before the ‘impact player’ rule came in, there were a lot of cricketers wanting to be involved, wanting to impact the game with both bat and ball. Allrounders traditionally have been crucial for cricket teams, to lengthen the batting lineup, provide balance and different bowling options. Allrounders are not a luxury but a necessity. Having multi-skilled players is a huge benefit. I know in the IPL people think the ‘impact-player’ rule is sort of taking something away from the allrounders, but they still play a huge part. They’re crucial to balancing the side,” Buttler said.