T20 World Cup 2021: "Jos Buttler is the best T20 batter in international cricket right now" - Brad Hogg
Former Australian spinner Brad Hogg has termed Jos Buttler the best active T20 international batter. The England wicketkeeper is currently the third-highest run-scorer in this edition of the T20 World Cup and has played a vital hand in England's dominance so far.
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Hogg singled out Buttler's ability to stay on the wicket and adapt to the match situation as one of his best traits. The England vice-captain scored a century on a sluggish Sharjah surface to bail England out of trouble against Sri Lanka.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Hogg said:
"Jos Buttler, for me, is the best T20 batsman going around in international cricket right now. He is always a cool cucumber under pressure and even when the conditions are not in his favour, he takes his time to settle and then take risks."
Jos Buttler is the highest run-scorer in the Super 12s stage of the tournament with 214 runs. He came into the tournament after skipping the second leg of the 2021 IPL and even donned the captain's hat for their first warm-up fixture against India.
Teams batting first are losing it in the powerplay: Brad Hogg
The ongoing World Cup has seen a trend of results favoring sides batting second. While the dew factor is one of the reasons behind it, Hogg believes that the approach taken by teams batting first has not been up to the mark either.
He feels that opening batters are just trying to go for boundaries instead of trying to rotate the strike and keep the scoreboard ticking. Hogg added:
"Teams batting first are losing it in the powerplay. They are trying to find too many boundaries and are not rotating strike enough. Batsmen have to stop hunting for boundaries and instead try to convert the ones into twos and limit the dot balls. This puts pressure on opposition bowlers who bowl loose deliveries while trying to do something different."
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Hogg brought up Buttler's century against Sri Lanka as an example which others can look at and implement. Hogg elaborated:
"Best exponent of this was Jos Buttler against Sri Lanka. He batted right through the innings. He conserved his innings. The longer you bat in tough conditions, the easier it gets and he proved that."
The pitches in the T20 World Cup have been on the slower side. The Abu Dhabi surface, however, has some pace in it which the batters have used to their benefit as the ball comes nicely onto the bat.