Buttler was out for a second-ball duck against New Zealand. He has scored 62 runs in seven innings at this tournament, registering five single-figure scores in a row after innings of 26 and 21 in England’s first two games. He was caught behind off Lockie Ferguson in England’s win in Colombo on Friday night, trying to steer a ball through the off side that bounced steeply, and has not scored a single boundary in his last five innings.
England have Ben Duckett in their squad as a spare batter, who could open the batting if they decided to make a change. But Brook, who took over from Buttler after England’s early Champions Trophy exit last year, hinted strongly that they would stick rather than twist ahead of a likely semi-final against either India or West Indies in Mumbai next week.
“There’s been a lot said about Jos,” Brook said on Friday night. “I said the other day that he’s played 150 [154] games for England [in T20Is] and people probably need to take a little step back from that. He’s probably the best white-ball player to have ever played the game.
“He’s in a little bit of a rut now, but I think that’s an exciting thing for everybody in the world to know what he could produce in the next couple of games. He’s obviously got a lot of fire in the belly and he wants to go out there and show everybody what he’s made of. Look, he averages 34 [33.77] striking at 145 [147.77] in 150 [154] games. He’s a phenomenal player and I have no doubts he’ll go out and do well.”
Buttler has struggled for runs all winter, with a single half-century – 97 not out for Durban’s Super Giants – in 24 innings across England’s white-ball internationals and the SA20. He has also scored a solitary half-century (83 not out against USA in 2024) in 26 innings across England’s last four ICC events, dating back to the 2023 ODI World Cup in India.
Brook also suggested that Rehan Ahmed was unlikely to keep his place for the semi-finals despite his success with bat and ball against New Zealand, unless England are presented with an unusually spin-friendly surface in India.
“We’ve seen what Reh can do in the nets and he’s gone out there and played beautifully there, and taken the game away from them,” Brook said. “There’s conversations to be had but we said from the start of the comp – and we said it to the group – we’re going to select on conditions, and we thought that today was the perfect opportunity to bring him in, and he did an amazing job.”