Jos Buttler hopes break will help him in IPL 2026

England batting mainstay Jos Buttler has said that spending time away from cricket after a disappointing T20 World Cup campaign should put him in good stead as he looks for a fresh start with the Gujarat Titans in the Indian Premier League beginning later this month.

Former England captain Buttler continued to receive the team’s backing even as his runs dried up during the T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka, a lean patch for one of the country’s most prominent white-ball batters.

Buttler managed just 87 runs across eight matches at an average of 10.87, with a forgettable strike rate of 116, while opening the batting for England at the World Cup. England bowed out of the tournament after losing to India in a high-scoring semifinal in Mumbai.

The 35-year-old hopes that the break he took from the game since that semifinal on March 5 should help him heading into the IPL starting on March 28.

“I couldn’t have been further away from cricket, which for me at the time was just perfect. It’s exactly what I needed,” Buttler said on the "For the Love of Cricket’ podcast.

“Obviously, the tournament didn’t go personally how I’d have liked it to go. I just felt like I needed some space (away) 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,” he said.

IPL 2022 winners, the Gujarat Titans, will get their campaign underway on March 31 in an away game against the Punjab Kings.

Buttler said the break was energising, which also gave him time to reflect.

“It was really refreshing — I really enjoyed it — a complete sort of release,” he said.

“Slowly but surely, I’d say at the start of this week, (I am) just starting to reflect a bit and have a few thoughts about what’s important to me and my cricket, and why it probably didn’t go quite as I would’ve liked.”

Buttler said his lack of runs in the T20 World Cup was not due to lack of effort, since in the lead-up to the semifinal against India, he had spent the longest possible time in the nets trying to bat himself back into form. But what had followed was another scratchy 25 runs off 17 balls.

“There’s elements (to what went wrong) 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’s okay as well. That’s something I’ve had to realise. It wasn’t for a lack of effort; it just didn’t quite happen,” he said.