Jos Buttler still has England ambitions despite having ‘poor’ T20 World Cup

Jos Buttler accepts he had a “poor tournament” at the T20 World Cup but has not given up on playing for England again.

Buttler, 35, failed to make the expected impact as England went on to reach the semi-finals, producing a total of just 87 runs from his eight innings.

The former limited-overs captain – who was part of the 2019 ODI World Cup-winning squad and also oversaw the T20 triumph in Australia three years later – accepts his international future is now in the hands of the selectors.

Buttler, who remains on a central contract with the ECB, said on his For the Love of Cricket podcast with Stuart Broad: “Obviously I had a poor tournament, which is disappointing, but I have been playing some of the best cricket of my (career) in recent years, so hopefully I can get back to playing my best.

“I certainly have ambitions (to play for England again), but no longer being a captain, I am not a selector and whatever, so what will be, will be. Yeah, we will see.”

Buttler is set to play for Gujarat Titans in the Indian Premier League and hopes some time away after the World Cup with his family “up the mountains” in France can help with a reset.

“I couldn’t have been further away from cricket, which for me at the time was just perfect. It is exactly what I needed,” Buttler said.

“Obviously the tournament didn’t go personally how I would have liked it to go, and I just felt like I needed some space from cricket and not to think about the game, and I could not have been further away from cricket where I was in that week.

“It was really refreshing – I really enjoyed it, a complete sort of release, and slowly but surely, I would say at the start of this week, (I am) just starting to reflect a bit and have a few thoughts about what is important to me and my cricket, and why it probably didn’t go quite as I would’ve liked.

“There’s elements that I actually don’t really know exactly. For all your best intentions and hard work and efforts to perform, it just didn’t work, and sometimes that is OK as well.

“That is something I have had to realise. It wasn’t for a lack of effort, it just didn’t quite happen.

“So I have had a bit of time off and am now starting that process again of getting back into cricket.”