A little more than two decades have passed since the first Somerset academy coach to see a 12-year-old Jos Buttler in action immediately predicted: “This lad will play for England.” No one who has regularly seen him play in that period is surprised that he has become one of the great white-ball batters. But one of the great white-ball captains? That’s another story.
Buttler’s first World Cup was in New Zealand, in 2010, when he was part of an England Under-19s side that contained some of the great leaders of their generation: the country’s current white- and red-ball captains, Buttler and Ben Stokes, bolstered the middle order; Joe Root, captain for 64 Tests, opened the batting; James Vince, who became Hampshire’s youngest postwar captain at 23, came in at No 3.
