Ian Botham: Jos Buttler blew Pakistan apart

After a breathtaking 46 ball century, Sir Ian Botham said that Jos Buttler has blew Pakistan apart with his performance. Buttler hit the fastest century as an English player breaking his own record and has currently been in a very good time on field overcoming his bad patch. Buttler had to bid goodbye to his wicket keeping job without any faults there as he failed to score good runs and was replaced by Jonny Bairstow following his below the mark performance but is all set to claim his spot back with the current brilliance with the bat, says Botham. READ MORE: Jos Buttler slams fastest ton for England; 7th overall

“He scored 49 not out in the third ODI and looked like he was getting it all back together – timing, confidence. Today ( 4th One-Day International) he blew the Pakistani bowling apart – he ripped them all whether it was spin or pace. It didn’t matter. He hit the ball as we know he can in strange and different places – it’s almost impossible to set fields for him when he bats like that,” Botham said.

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Buttler was elemental in England’s 3-1 ODI series victory as he scored good runs as expected from him. Pointing that out, Botham added,”When he decides to go for the big shot, he’s got really fast hands and he hits that ball very hard and it goes, more often than not, a very long way. We’ve got Buttler in this series and then very shortly we’ll be in South Africa, who have AB de Villiers, and they are currently the two star men when it comes to the improvisation of one-day and Test cricket. They are probably two of the best strikers in the game.” FULL SCORECARD: Pakistan vs England 2015, 4th ODI at Dubai

Talking about the probabilities of the upcoming series, he further opined,”I think Buttler will end up starting the series as wicketkeeper. He didn’t do anything wrong as a ‘keeper, he just didn’t get any runs. It would be hard on Jonny because he hasn’t done anything wrong but Buttler was the chosen guy but I think on this form, with the T20s to come as well, I’d be very surprised if he doesn’t start in the Test series.”