ENG vs AUS: Jos Buttler announces quitting wicketkeeping to save his captaincy

England National Cricket Team white-ball skipper Jos Buttler has opened up on the idea of quitting the wicketkeeping duties in order to improve his captaincy.

Buttler became the white-ball captain of the English team after the legendary Eoin Morgan announced his retirement in 2022. In his first stint as the full-time captain, he led the Three Lions to the T20 World Cup 2022 title.

However, since then, things have only gone downhill for Jos Buttler, with England performing poorly in the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023 and the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2024.

Buttler has come under fire for his captaincy in recent times and calls have been made for his sacking. Following the poor performance in the T20 World Cup 2024, the white-ball coach Matthew Mott was sacked by the ECB, but Buttler survived, and he is set to continue as the skipper.

Buttler will work with a new head coach - Brendon McCullum - when he leads the side in the Champions Trophy 2025. McCullum has completely transformed the Test team of England and will take over the all-format head coach of the side in January.

If that’s something that will really help me in my captaincy, then it’s something that I am open to - Jos Buttler

To avoid his sacking, Jos Buttler is ready to do everything, which includes quitting the wicketkeeping. He said that he is open to doing everything that's best for his team and is ready to hand over the keeping gloves to other players.

"If I was playing in this T20 series, I was going to give up the gloves and commit to being at mid-off and seeing how that felt. Baz (Brendon McCullum) stumbled across it with an injury preventing him from keeping wicket, but then he really enjoyed being at mid-off so that’s something we can talk about. If that’s something that will really help me in my captaincy, then it’s something that I am open to,” Jos Buttler said on Sky Sports.

“I am very open to those kinds of things. I just want what’s best for the team, and what’s best for the team is going to be me being the best captain I can be. If I have to move from behind the wickets to do that, then so be it,” Jos Buttler added.

Notably, Jos Buttler didn't participate in the recently concluded three-match T20I series against Australia due to a calf injury. He has not featured for England in any capacity since the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2024 in June and will also miss the upcoming ODI series against the Aussies.

In his place, Harry Brook has been chosen to lead the side, making him the potential successor of Buttler whenever he decides to quit the role.

Also, all-rounder Liam Livingstone, who was dropped from the ODI side, has been named as Buttler's replacement in the squad after his impressive performances in the Australia T20Is. Notably, Livingstone had just recently expressed his desire to return to ODIs but had mentioned that he wasn't aware of how to do it.