'Freak' Buttler just what England ordered at T20 World Cup

LONDON - Jos Buttler's talent was evident during a youth cricket career that saw the 17-year-old hit an unbeaten 227 including
25 fours and eight sixes in a school match.

  But the history of the game is littered with tales of youthful prodigies
who never made an impact at senior level.

  That cannot be said of Buttler, whose batting exploits in the United Arab
Emirates have been behind 50-over world champions England's push for the T20
World Cup title.

  The 31-year-old's power and audacious shotmaking, born of natural ball
sense, were on show in an unbeaten 71 off 32 balls during England's victory
over arch-rivals Australia.

  But he showed another side to his game, however, with a maiden T20 century
against Sri Lanka as he joined a select group of cricketers to have made
hundreds in all three international formats -- Tests, One-Day Internationals
and Twenty20s.

  Yet on a slow pitch where timing was difficult, Buttler scored just 24 runs
from his first 30 balls against Sri Lanka.

  Buttler, however, upped his tempo with 77 runs from his next 37 balls to
finish with an unbeaten 101 that was key to another England win.

  - 'Absolute freak' -

  England team-mate Dawid Malan, until recently top of the International
Cricket Council's T20 batting rankings, said Buttler was operating on a
different level.

  "Jos when he gets going is an absolute freak," said Malan ahead of
England's game against South Africa on Saturday.

  "You don't know where to bowl to him. You bowl a full length and he hits it
for six, you bowl short and he hits you for six."

  Buttler, however, is trying to ignore all the praise.

  "Probably the most pleasing thing for me is to play back-to-back knocks and
they were quite different innings as well," he told Wednesday's edition of
The Times.

  "Sometimes the younger version of me would play one good innings then get a
bit lazy and live off it for a bit.

  "I think as I have got older, I've realised that once you've played a good
innings, it's gone, it's history. You've got to try to replicate it and do it
again."

  In Dubai, wicketkeeper-batsman Buttler smashed Australia fast bowler
Mitchell Starc for two huge consecutive sixes.

  And yet for all his obvious ability, Buttler has a mere two hundreds from
53 Tests, with a modest batting averages of 33.33.

  To his credit, he has not stopped trying to crack Test cricket, and after
this tournament he will head to Australia in a bid to help Joe Root's men
regain the Ashes.

  Buttler, often asked why he does not bat in the same way in Tests as in
white-ball games, said: "I don't think it's possible. The value of your
wicket is different, isn't it?

  "The ball moves, there's slips in place, it's generally a lot harder," he
added.

  "The main thing is the mindset, that fearlessness and demeanour at the
crease, if I could take that into my red-ball batting that would be a real positive."BSS/AFP