England Men’s team captain Jos Buttler won’t be able to join the team for minimum three more matches, because of his prolonged calf injury, he has been dropped out from next week’s ODI tournament of the Caribbean.
Buttler, aged 34, has been troubled by the injury for four months, the last match that he played was their semi-final defeat to India in Guyana in June, and then England was removed from the T20 world cup. After that he is not able to play any competitive match for England.
The entirety of Manchester Originals’ Hundred campaign was also missed by him, and then he also left the T20I and ODI series against Australia in September as well. According to the ECB, he has now suffered a “slight setback” in his rehabilitation, and will consequently fly direct to Barbados ahead of the five-match T20I series, which begins on November 9.
Liam Livingstone has been selected as England’s ODI captain, due to Buttler’s absence. He has been offered this responsibility for the very first time, with Harry Brook – Buttler’s substitute in the ODIs against Australia – currently in Rawalpindi practising for the third Test against Pakistan.
Michael Pepper has selected the tour squad as cover while the selectors initially planned to bring in two additional players based on the third Test line-up in Rawalpindi. Jordan Cox, who recently debuted in white-ball cricket against Australia, has possible chances of selection in the squad, along with Olly Stone, who has returned from his honeymoon but was left out of the previous match.
Pepper has only participated in seven List A games and he was also third-highest run-scorer in 2024 Vitality Blast and he gave his best performance throughout the season with Essex, also he succeeded in making his maiden first-class hundred.
Buttler’s International future will be at risk due to his prolonged absence, despite Brendon McCullum’s affirmation, England’s upcoming trainer, that he would remain front and centre of his plans, with McCullum pointedly saying that “he’s been a little bit miserable at times.
He’s an incredibly gifted player,” McCullum added at his unveiling. “He’s a fine leader. My job is to get the best out of him so that all those that sit in the dressing-room feel like they can be ten-feet tall and bulletproof when they walk out to play, and they know that the skipper is going to give them that extra pat on the back and enjoy the ride with them.”
During the Australia series, Butler joined the team but with non-playing presence along with Marcus Trescothick, England’s interim white-ball coach who will be leading the Caribbean tour, insisting: “There’s no reason why Jobs won’t fit back into that mould, score millions of runs, captain well and fit back into the team perfectly.”
“Let’s make it clear,” Trescothick said. “He will come straight back in. At what position, I don’t know. We’ll look at that for the Caribbean.”
England men’s squad for white-ball tour of West Indies (ODIs and T20Is)
Jos Buttler (T20 series only), Jofra Archer, Jacob Bethell, Jafer Chohan, Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Liam Livingstone, Saqib Mahmood, Dan Mousley, Jamie Overton, Adil Rashid, Phil Salt, Reece Topley, John Turner
Two further players to be added from the test squad currently in Pakistan.
