ECB Coaches Association links Coaching Insight 2019 | Page 41

Just Jos
J
os Buttler’s return to Test
cricket in 2018 was a bold
selection, made on the back of
numerous high class performances
in the white ball game. With that
decision now fully justified by Jos,
we find out what’s under the hood
of England’s match-winner.
“I’ve always had an inquisitive
side,” Jos reflects, slowly and
considerately, wondering perhaps
what that trait looks like for people
on the other side of his ingenuity.
What were those people –
coaches, teachers, parents – like
in the face of that inquisitiveness?
Did they try to steer him down a
more conventional path?
“Maybe. I think I’m a very
strong-minded person; I may
come across as quiet and
unassuming, but I know what
I want and how I want to play,
and I’m not afraid to challenge
coaches. I’ll fight my corner.
“When I was growing up it was
always the guys who were doing
something different that excited
me, in any sport. Those guys who
had that magic touch. If I look at
English cricket, Kevin Pietersen
was a guy who I always loved
watching bat. Eoin Morgan, he was
different, playing these reverse
sweeps and scoops. He wasn’t
doing it just to be different. In the
game situation it made sense.”
How about away from sport, did
this convention-challenging spread
into his everyday life?
39