England captain withdraws from Lancashire’s match at Hove, hasn’t played since June
Jos Buttler hasn’t played competitively since England’s elimination from the T20 World Cup in June • Getty Images
A setback in his recovery from a calf injury has ruled Jos Buttler out of Lancashire’s T20 Blast quarter-final, and leaves him facing a battle to be fit for England’s T20I series against Australia.
England are not overly concerned about Buttler’s fitness ahead of their first T20I on September 11 and remain hopeful that he will be available to captain the side throughout Australia’s eight-match white-ball tour. England’s new-look squad are due to report to the Utilita Bowl on Sunday ahead of two training days, when their medical staff will get a clearer picture as to whether Buttler will be available.
England’s white-ball teams do not have an official vice-captain, with Sam Curran and Phil Salt the main contenders to deputise in the event that Buttler is unavailable. He is not expected to keep wicket during the T20I series, which increases the chance that he will be able to feature despite suffering a setback.
But he has now been ruled out of contention, as their coach Dale Benkenstein confirmed to BBC Radio Lancashire. “We’ve had some bad news on his recovery,” Benkenstein said. “He had an injury he was recovering from, and he’s sort of tweaked it again. He’s not only just out of our T20s, but I think he’s even struggling to make the international ones. He was very keen to play for us.”
Lancashire will have their other England players available on Wednesday night at Hove, with Salt, Liam Livingstone and Saqib Mahmood all set to be involved. Jofra Archer is expected to feature for Sussex, whose T20 side is captained by Tymal Mills. Hove has not hosted a T20 quarter-final in front of a crowd since 2019, and tickets have been sold out for the past two weeks.
Matt Roller is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. @mroller98
