“It’s been glorious and worth every second of your time.” Ian Bishop exulted in the commentary box when Jos Buttler launched Kolkata Knight Riders’ Pat Cummins over long-on to bring up his second century of IPL 2022 in just his 7th game of the season.
In the very next game, versus Delhi Capitals, Buttler hammered another century. Buttler, the Orange Cap holder by a distance, now has crossed 450 runs this season in 7 innings.
Only once in these 7 innings has Buttler got out for a score below 30. He’s now seriously threatening Virat Kohli’s IPL season record of 973 runs and the dreamy 1000-run season – that the then RCB skipper registered in 2016. Buttler has walloped over 30 sixes already! And it’s only half a season yet.
So what is the secret of Jos Buttler’s power game? The man himself talked about it last year
It’s clear that Buttler prefers the arc between long-on and mid-wicket to take down any kind of bowler and his sixes are rarely on the square on the off-side.
Since he rocked into the England side, Buttler has been looked at with a different eye by the purists and former cricketers because he’s so much unlike them: Jos is predominantly a bottom-handed player and not the high-elbow kind of that English cricketers of the past drool over.
He uses the enormous strengths in his wrists for his shots; and instead of playing with a straight bat, as his coaches earlier used to teach him, Buttler closes the bat face slightly at the point of contact and looks to whip the ball with his wrists.
“It’s my natural swing, maybe because I’m predominantly a right-sided person with a strong bottom hand. Some of the coaches tried to change the method, but I stuck to my natural game,” Buttler said while speaking with Andrew Flintoff and Robert Key for Sky Sports batting masterclass show.
Jos Buttler ka naam Josh Buttler hona chahiye!
Incredible hitting by him and @rajasthanroyals.
This is a belter of a wicket and I have a feeling that the match is wide open.#DCvRR pic.twitter.com/Bzh3DcAroy
— Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) April 22, 2022
Now, this propensity of closing the bat face early on has found him vulnerable in Test cricket and his red-ball England career looks over at the moment. However, it’s the same facet of his technique that’s made him a white-ball beast. It helps in generating a free-flowing swing of the bat and incredible power. He also has a short grip by keeping his hands slightly lower on the handle.
“Wrists are the most important part of my batting. I don’t look to use much of my body to hit the sixes, but primarily my bottom hand,” Jos Buttler explains.
And the last is his open chested stance, almost standing towards mid-on. Generally, batters with a dominant right-eye use this. He also has a trigger – his back foot moves back and then the front foot goes forward.
“Moving back, then forward helps me get momentum into my shots. It’s like a baseball technique. I could stay where I am, but going back feels like it gives me a bit more drive to come back into the ball and get all my weight and momentum going back to the target of where I want the ball to go,” he further elaborated.
All this has been on show in the IPL 2022 as Buttler has been in the most insane of hitting spree.
