Jos Buttler has the backing of England’s head coach, Trevor Bayliss, to put his name forward for the Indian Premier League auction this year following the emergence of Jonny Bairstow in the Test side.
While a key player in the one-day and Twenty20 teams, the 24-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman is an unused squad member in the current series in South Africa after losing his place to Bairstow at the start of November, during the 2-0 defeat to Pakistan.
The situation looks set to continue for the foreseeable future, with Bairstow scoring his maiden international century in the drawn second Test at Cape Town and averaging 150 with the bat in the four innings against the Proteas so far.
It leaves Buttler facing a dilemma before the start of the English summer, with the option of either pushing for a Test recall by playing championship cricket for Lancashire or furthering his Twenty20 experience in the IPL, which starts on 9 April.
Having sent Adil Rashid to Australia’s Big Bash League instead of carrying the drinks in South Africa - the leg-spinner is currently starring for Adelaide Strikers under the Yorkshire head coach, Jason Gillespie - Bayliss sees a similar situation emerging.
Asked about Buttler’s predicament, the England head coach said:
“It’s something we’ve spoken about. Personally I’d think it would be something similar along the lines of Rashid.
“If he’s in the Test team he’ll be playing Test cricket for England and he definitely wants to play more Test cricket for England, which is great. But Jonny is there at the moment.
“If the opportunity arises and he’s not in the Test team and that IPL window is a possibility, I’d be all for it.”
As the scorer of England’s three fastest hundreds in one-day cricket , full availability for the IPL could mean Buttler attracts a lucrative deal in February’s auction, with Kolkata Knightriders, the team formerly coached by Bayliss, thought to be interested.
While it is Bairstow’s runs with the bat that look set to keep Buttler out of the Test frame for now, he has grassed two catches in the series so far, with Bayliss conceding that both rivals are still learning their trade behind the stumps.
“Both Jonny and Jos work terribly hard on their keeping and there are plenty of other wicketkeepers around the world that have started off their international careers not in the greatest fashion but ended up pretty decent keepers.
“He knows he’s in the team, number one, to keep wicket. So that is definitely a focus - to make him better, as it is with Jos as well. We know both of them in form can possibly play in this Test team as batters any way. So it’s all in front of both of them.”
Bayliss admitted the drawn second Test at Newlands represented a missed opportunity to go 2-0 up in the series heading to Johannesburg, with dropped catches in South Africa’s first innings squandering the 629 for six declared had put England on the board batting first, after Ben Stokes’s 258 and 150 from Bairstow.
Some 360 of the 627 runs amassed by South Africa in reply were added after nine reprieves by England, although the Australian - a stickler for fielding - claims not all were genuine chances. There will be no additional practice for his players as a consequence, however.
Bayliss said: “I think it was four or five we should have taken. If we’d have taken those, you can’t tell how the rest of the game would have panned out but I believe it could have been us bowling on the last day going for a win. “We’ll certainly be working on it but no more or less than what we’ve done in the past. We do spend a lot of time on the catching especially. That’s why it’s disappointing when you put in the hard yards, every now and again it doesn’t work.
“If it continues then that would be more of a concern but we’ve caught pretty well in the last six months. Hopefully it is something that’s a one-off.
“We’ve spoken before about the consistency of our play and that’s across the three facets of the game - batting, bowling and fielding.  We won’t reach the pinnacle until we can do that.”