Phil Salt will keep wicket for England throughout their Twenty20 series in the Caribbean with Jos Buttler playing as a specialist batsman.
Buttler, England’s white-ball captain, will make his return from injury in Saturday’s opening T20 clash in Barbados, missing Wednesday’s final ODI. But Buttler will not take the gloves at all in the series – a major shift in England’s approach, with his run as the side’s first-choice wicketkeeper stretching all the way back to 2012.
The new role for Buttler follows Brendon McCullum, who will take over as head coach of the white-ball team in January, advising the captain to play as a specialist batsman. McCullum made the same transition from being a keeper-batsman to specialist batsman during his own playing career.
Buttler has kept wicket in 106 of the past 108 T20Is that he has played for England, with the only exception when Salt performed the role for two games on the T20 tour of the Caribbean last winter. But Buttler still returned to keep wicket during the T20 World Cup.
“I’ll be keeping in the T20s,” said Salt, who is also doing the role in the ODI series. “It’s not something I’ve done a lot for England recently but I enjoy keeping. I feel like that’s where I offer most to the side.
“We’ve not had that chat about anything going forward. I’m just glad to be doing it at the moment.”
Marcus Trescothick, England’s interim white-ball coach in McCullum’s absence, told Salt over the weekend that he would keep in all five of the T20 matches.
Though Salt has only kept in two previous T20s for England, and often plays as a specialist batsman in franchise leagues he said that he “definitely” prefers keeping wicket.
“I want to be involved in everything. Even when I’m in the field, I want the ball to come to me every ball. I don’t know why, I’ve always been like that.”
While Salt said that he prefers keeping wicket when he is captain, he also suggested that Buttler might benefit from being able to communicate more easily with bowlers in between deliveries.
“Maybe it will get a little bit more out of him at mid-off having an opportunity to chat to the bowlers. The only thing that keeping takes away from you is the advantage of being there with the bowlers at the top of their marks all the time. Sometimes you can get stuck in a bit of a position where the only times you’re running up to a bowler is when things aren’t going to plan and you’re running up to reaffirm positive things.”
After landing in Barbados on Sunday, Buttler trained for the first time at Kensington Oval on Monday. He has not played a single game of cricket since June 26, when England were eliminated from the T20 World Cup in Guyana, suffering from a long-standing calf injury.
Had Buttler been fit to play in the T20 series against Australia in September, Salt would have kept wicket.
“I was going to give up the gloves and commit to being at mid-off and see how that felt,” Buttler said at the time. “If it will help me with my captaincy it is something I am open to.”
No decisions have yet been made over whether Buttler will give up the gloves on a permanent basis. He previously said that as wicketkeeper, “I feel like I’ve got the best view. I can see exactly what’s happening and I can make calls”.
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