When Virat Kohli had a freakish IPL season in 2016, where he scored a mammoth 973 runs, including four centuries, no one thought that this record would be broken for years to come. However, Jos Buttler, the English T20 opener representing Rajasthan Royals, is already challenging that benchmark with just 7 innings in Tata IPL 2022.
Jos Buttler has scored 491 runs, including 3 hundred in the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League. He has also become the second batter after Shikhar Dhawan to score consecutive hundreds in IPL. Will he break Virat Kohli’s record to cement his legacy as one the greatest in IPL? The answer to that question is hidden in time.
Nevertheless, no one can doubt Jos Buttler is the best T20 opener of the current generation surpassing Rohit Sharma, David Warner and many others.
Here’s why Jos Buttler is the best opener in T20 cricket:
Jos Buttler has played both in the middle-order and top-order as a batsman for England Cricket Team and many other T20 franchises all over the globe. However, his talent as an opener is second to none, and England has appointed him as the permanent opener in T20i cricket instead of destructive Johnny Bairstow.
Buttler has opened for England in 28 innings to score 1,144 runs at a staggering average of 57.20 and a blitzing strike rate of almost 149. He has already scored 11 half-centuries and a century as a T20i opener. Buttler has remained unbeaten on 8 out of 28 occasions while opening in T20i cricket.
On the other hand, his contemporaries Babar Azam, David Warner and Rohit Sharma have played far more matches as openers in T20i cricket. However, a look at the records of these hailed cricketers suggests that Jos Buttler is far more superior to them.
Babar Azam has an average of 44 in 48 innings and a strike rate of 132, while Rohit Sharma has an average of 33.32 and a strike rate of 142 in T20i cricket as an opener. Lastly, David Warner has an average of 33 and a strike rate of 140 as a T20i opener. All three of these great openers pale compared to Jos Buttler and further strengthen the claim that Buttler is the best T20 opener.
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