England and Rajasthan Royals wicket-keeper batsman Jos Buttler admits feeling the pressure while playing as an overseas player in the Indian Premier League.
Speaking in an interaction with Lancashire cricket, 29-year old Buttler talked about how being among four overseas players in an IPL XI brings its own pressure.
“It was one of pressures you have to learn, especially in India, as an overseas player, you are one of the four in the team and you know the other four who are not playing are also world class players. So you are under pressure to perform
“So, that’s been a great learning curve. One of the things I came out with from the first IPL is to just learn to deal with the chaos,” Buttler was quoted as saying.
Buttler, who made his IPL debut for Mumbai Indians in 2016, scored 255 runs in 14 matches at an average of 23.18 and a strike rate of 138.58.
In 31 IPL matches in the next three seasons (one for Indians and two for Royals), the right-hand batsman scored 1,131 runs at an average of 40.39 and a strike rate of 153.88 including nine half-centuries.
Jos Buttler expresses admiration for MS Dhoni
Buttler, who has in the past admired veteran India wicket-keeper batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni, once again eulogized the 38-year old player and considered watching him as a “great lesson”.
“MS Dhoni has always been a big idol of mine and chaos is always going around him, people wanting a bit of him, the cricket and the noise. It is such a great lesson to just watch him and see first hand how to manage all that thing if you have to perform at the top level and perform in those crunch moment, that certainly has been one of the massive pluses,” Buttler added.
📽 @BackStop130 enjoyed catching up with @josbuttler this morning 👊
Full interview coming later today!
🌹 #RedRoseTogether pic.twitter.com/u7JWQwjOjq
— Lancashire Cricket (@lancscricket) May 4, 2020
It is worth mentioning that 31 out of Buttler’s 252 international outings have come with Dhoni being in the opposition team. In his idol’s presence, Buttler has scored 715 runs across formats at an average of 31.08 and a strike rate of 92.02 including five half-centuries.
