Jos Buttler was rushed back into the England Test team after smashing five consecutive fifties in the Indian Premier League.

Form in a T20 tournament is not the best criteria for Test selection but the England management were sufficiently impressed by Buttler’s performance in India to draft him as a batsman for the two-Test series against Pakistan.

The 27-year-old Buttler is playing his 20th Test right now. And in all 20 Tests, he has batted at the number seven in the order or further down in eighth. For a batsman so obviously gifted, it might seem too low a batting position.

However, for the Rajasthan Royals man it is perfect as he aims to stabilize his Test career and play in all three formats regularly.

LOW PRESSURE

Representing your country in Test cricket is serious business – particularly for England, given the country pride themselves on the long-form part of the game.

However, for Buttler, he knows that whenever he bats an number seven, there isn’t that much pressure on him as the six batsmen before him have had their shot at run-scoring.

Whether the top order has scored 150 or 450, expectations are automatically low for a man in possession of the number seven slot given they generally bat with the tail.

In the second innings of the Lord’s Test, Buttler scored a fluent 67 in the company of Dom Bess that helped England avoid an innings defeat.

At Headingley, Buttler remained unbeaten on 34 at stumps on Day Two to help the hosts take their lead past 100. His compact innings seems to have already done the job for England at Leeds.

IDEAL TECHNIQUE

Buttler is the perfect modern-day T20 batsman. He can jump over across the stumps and scoop any bowler behind the wicket for a boundary. Obviously, that’s not what you want in Test cricket but that daredevilry becomes an asset when the team is in a tight spot and you want someone to change the tempo of the innings and the match in 45 minutes.

It is something he has done before. In his first three Test innings batting at number seven, Buttler hit 85 from 83 balls, 45 from 73 and 59* from 56 balls.  His technique is good enough for a quickfire 40. And at number seven, that is what most teams expect.

DANGER QUOTIENT

When a batsman like Buttler walks in to bat, bowlers become alert and some change their tactics just on his reputation. The same bowlers are likely to have more assertive tactics against someone like India wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha, who also bats at number seven and eight and has a similar record (1164 runs at an average of 30 compared to Buttler’s 865 at 32).

The difference is the knowledge about what Buttler can do in an hour. He has blasted the best bowling attacks in the world in white ball cricket consistently and sometimes effortlessly. That makes him a dangerous batsman as it is not all about power but more placement and hand-eye co-ordination too. That he can take over as the wicketkeeper as well makes him the perfect batsman to take care of at least that section of England’s batting order.

Now if only they can find an opener partner for Alastair Cook.