I’d really look at Jos Butter to open the innings in Test cricket: Kumar Sangakkara

Having known England’s limited-overs batting superstar Jos Buttler’s game for a while, former Sri Lankan skipper Kumar Sangakkara has backed the Englishman to open the innings in Test cricket. Despite being a very accomplished white-ball batter, Buttler has been in and out of the England Test side for a while.

Meanwhile, Sangakkara showed immense faith in the 2019 World Cup winner’s potential to be a successful Test opener by comparing him with two of the iconic batters in the 2000s- Matthew Hayden and Virender Sehwag. The duo excelled at the longest format despite being known as world-class power-hitters who were known to score runs at a brisk rate opening the innings.

We’ve seen Sehwag, Hayden, all of them opening the innings: Kumar Sangakkara

“I’d really look at him to open the innings in Test cricket. We’ve always talked about him batting at seven, batting with the tail. We’ve seen Sehwag, Hayden, all of them opening the innings why not Buttler?” said Sangakkara while speaking to Sky Sports.

The veteran Sri Lankan stumper serves as the Director of Cricket of the Rajasthan Royals in the IPL. As far as IPL 2022 is concerned, Jos Buttler finished as the Orange Cap winner having amassed 863 runs in 17 matches including four centuries. The Royals made the finals where they went down to the new franchise Gujarat Titans in a one-sided contest.

Buttler recently scored the second-fastest century for England during a One Day International fixture against the Netherlands which eventually powered the reigning ODI world champions to a world record score of 498 in the 50 overs format. Meanwhile, the wicketkeeper-batter has indeed opened in red-ball cricket twice but did not achieve success as he got out scoring four and a duck.

Jos Buttler had last donned the whites for England during the 2021/22 Ashes series in December-January. Nonetheless, he had a forgettable outing as he managed just 107 runs in four matches at a mere average of 15.28. He did not play the inconsequential fifth Test match and was ruled out due to a broken finger.