'For me it's a no-brainer' - Michael Vaughan backs Jos Buttler to succeed Eoin Morgan as England's white-ball captain

Jos Buttler has been endorsed as England’s next limited-overs skipper by Michael Vaughan, who also referred to him as the finest white-ball cricketer in the world. As per recent developments, it is being said that Eoin Morgan is set to announce his retirement from international cricket owing to his form and fitness concerns.

If so is the case, Jos Buttler and Moeen Ali will be the frontrunners for the captaincy role. Buttler has been in terrific form in white-ball cricket. He ended his IPL 2022 stint with Rajasthan Royals as the highest run-scorer for not just the franchise, but in the tournament overall. In the recent ODI series against the Netherlands, Buttler amassed 248 runs in three games to finish as the joint-highest run-scorer.

In his column for The Telegraph, Vaughan supported Buttler for the position of England captain, claiming that he has a very sharp cricketing mind as he said: “For me, it’s a no-brainer that Jos Buttler takes over that role. He’s the best white-ball player in the world, he’s got a very smart cricket brain, and he’s got that calmness you need.”

Jos Buttler could murder teams with complete freedom to go and attack: Michael Vaughan

Meanwhile, Kumar Sangakkara has backed Buttler to open for England in Test matches. Vaughan concurred with Sangakkara’s observation that England had struggled in the opening combination recently. He believes that the 31-year-old will blend in well with the current Test team, which has Ben Stokes as the skipper, and Brendon McCullum as the head coach.

“England have this fearless, aggressive nature, and the balls don’t seem to be doing as much in the UK as they have done in previous seasons. If something as radical Buttler as Test opener was ever going to work it would be now, under this management group of Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum. I’d love to see him in this group playing like he played in the IPL,” stated the former England skipper.

Vaughan feels that Buttler is the right fit for the opener’s role and believes that he has done justice to the spot. He derived a similarity between his batting style with that of former Indian opener Virender Sehwag, and said that if the playing conditions and pitches support him, Buttler can wreak havoc with his power-hitting prowess.

“When he was opening this year he played quite conventionally. And then he got in and started to flourish. Of course, he’s still going to have difficulty if the ball swings around like it did in the first innings, but when its flat like we saw in the second innings, he could murder teams with complete freedom to go and attack, Virender Sehwag style,” he added.