With Eoin Morgan set to officially confirm his international retirement, Jos Buttler looks set to replace him as England white-ball captain.
He has been Morgan's vice-captain for several years and former England skipper Michael Vaughan believes it is a "no-brainer" that Buttler should take over. "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," he wrote in his column for the Telegraph.
Vaughan also believes that Buttler still has a future in England's Test team, despite getting dropped following a poor Ashes series and the fact it is becoming increasingly difficult to be a multi-format player. While on commentary for Sky Sports during the third Test against New Zealand, Sri Lanka legend Kumar Sangakkara suggested Buttler should open for England in Test cricket.
"We've always talked about him batting at seven, batting with the tail," Sangakkara said. "We've seen Sehwag, Hayden, all of them opening the innings – why not Buttler?"
And Vaughan agrees with Sangakkara's assessment, claiming Buttler could thrive playing under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum. "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," he added.
"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.
"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.
"Why not? England are generally one down early anyway, so they might as well be one down early by someone having a big old yahoo."
