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England’s star batter Jos Buttler has finally broken his silence on batting at number four during Gujarat Titans' painful defeat to Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the IPL 2026 final in Ahmedabad.
Many cricket experts and fans were left confused and stunned when young batter Nishant Sindhu was sent in ahead of Buttler during the crucial stage of the IPL 2026 final. Now, Buttler revealed that he was actually ready to bat at No. 3, but the GT team management had a different plan.
Jos Buttler opens up on Gujarat Titans' controversial decision in IPL 2026 Final vs RCB
Recently, Jos Buttler revealed that he was already padded up and was even ready to leave the dugout as soon as Gujarat Titans captain Shubman Gill was dismissed, but head coach Ashish Nehra decided to send Nishant Sindhu instead because he didn’t get many chances to bat higher up the order.
Interestingly, it was not the first time Buttler had been held back. Gujarat Titans had sent Sindhu ahead of the former England captain a few more times in IPL 2026, but doing it in the final left everyone shocked because he was one of the world's most experienced T20 batters at the top order.
Jos Buttler told Stuart Broad on the ‘For the Love of Cricket' podcast: “Yeah, well, the wicket went down. I got up to put my helmet on, and Ashish said, "Sit back down. We're going to send Nishant in at three. And I did ask him after the game. He just said he felt like he was not reactive at that point. It was a good chance to get Nishant in the game, who's a top-order batter who has sometimes been on that slippery slope. If the team gets going, he's sort of ended up not batting and is batting seventh. So, he felt like it gave him a chance to get in the game.”
Krunal Pandya outfoxes Jos Buttler as GT's big gamble ends in disaster
Unfortunately, the move backfired as Gujarat Titans failed to gain momentum and the pressure continued to build as wickets fell. When Jos Buttler came out to bat, they were already in tough spot, so he had to try to rebuild the innings and take the game deep before accelerating later.
But things never went according to plan, and Buttler’s innings eventually ended with Krunal Pandya for only 19 runs from 23 balls.
The veteran wicketkeeper-batter said, “You know, right or wrong, it just didn't work out for us. I felt like when I was batting, I wanted to take it a little deep, having lost a few wickets, and sort of go run-a-ball for a little bit and then try and pick up those boundaries and get going. And I just never got the boundaries. And I got done really well by a good piece of bowling. He's a smart operator, Krunal Pandya. He saw me coming through. That wide, fast yorker and I was stumped.”
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Jos Buttler reflects on GT's IPL 2026 Final collapse
He said GT’s batting was so disappointing in the IPL 2026, and a score around 180 could have made a difference against RCB at the Narendra Modi Stadium. GT had made 155/8, and RCB chased down the target in 18 overs to defend their IPL title on May 31 in Ahmedabad.
Butler said, “Disappointing; you sort of get worse than a run-a-ball in an IPL final. It's not a great look. I had a plan in my head of how I wanted to play, which I think was the right plan. I just didn't execute it. I think if we could have got up to 180, it would've been a really good score.”
Notably, the Englishman enjoyed another outstanding IPL season. He scored 526 runs in 17 innings with the help of four half-centuries at an impressive strike rate of over 150. It was his second straight season when he scored more than 500 runs for Gujarat Titans in the tournament.
