England’s Jos Buttler credits ‘intimidating’ Jason Roy for helping him find top form in T20s

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“We have a good connection in the middle, he’s a great person to hit with”; Jos Buttler enjoys opening the partnership with Jason Roy in T20 cricket and says the ‘intimidating’ opening partner makes his job easier after the win over Sri Lanka.

Jos Buttler says the ‘good connection’ with his opening teammate Jason Roy has helped him in his T20 form for England

Jos Buttler attributed their impressive form at the top of England’s rankings in Twenty20s to the “intimidating” presence of starting teammate Jason Roy after the pair shone in hammering eight wickets from Sri Lanka.

Once tourists were restricted to 129 under par seven after winning the draw, Buttler took the applause with an undefeated 68 from 55 balls as England surpassed their goal with 17 balls to spare in Cardiff.

It was Buttler’s ninth half-century in 20 innings opening batting in T20 for England and it came after a belligerent endurance of 80 runs in 9.1 overs alongside Roy, who contributed 36 of 22 deliveries to break the back of the paltry chase. .

After helping England draw blood for the first time in the three-game series, which resumes on Thursday, Buttler was eager to pay tribute to Roy, whose entrepreneurial strike only ended with a surprising jump catch from Danushka Gunathilaka.

“It’s great to open with Jason,” Buttler said. “I get along very well with him, we have a good connection in the middle, he’s a great person to hit with.

“I think he’s such an intimidating guy to pitch to, he certainly makes your job easier on the other end because he puts a lot of pressure on the opposition.

“As soon as we went in, we took the pressure off the scoreboard by starting very well and I felt it was important to try to watch the innings.

“I thought this was a great performance. It’s a great start, but it’s just a beginning. I thought our bowling performance was fantastic and once we got away from the power game, we put the game to bed to a certain extent. “.

The quality gulf between the teams – England is the highest ranked T20 team in the world while their opponents are eighth – was evident throughout, with Sri Lanka colliding with their 10th loss in their last 11 matches completed in this format.

Adil Rashid took 2-17 and, possibly equally impressively, did not concede a single limit in his four overs, with Sri Lankan hitters struggling to time the ball on a pitch that posed relatively little trouble for their England counterparts.

Conditions are unlikely to be similar at the T20 World Cup later this year, which is scheduled to start in India in October, but Buttler insisted these matches remain a worthwhile exercise for Eoin’s team. Morgan.

Buttler reached an undefeated 68 as England advanced to victory

“It is advantageous to be together as a team playing T20 cricket, to get real clarity and of course also to discuss what the World Cup will be like,” he said.

“There will be elements of the games, I am sure, that Eoin Morgan can make a decision that may not suit the game, but that he may have the World Cup in mind.

“But whatever game we play we want to win, so we want to be able to learn and sometimes experiment, but we want to win as a team.”

“A winning team gives you confidence and entering a World Cup as part of a successful team will give us a great start to the tournament.”

The one-sided nature of the contest has set a high bar for England for the remainder of their white ball summer, but Buttler is convinced that there will be a response from Sri Lanka in the same place.

“They are a really talented team, we know it is dangerous to play against any Sri Lankan team,” he added.

“Without disrespecting any team we play against. We know that in international cricket we play the best teams, so T20 cricket can work like at some points, we know Sri Lanka will get tough on us.”

Watch the second T20 International between England and Sri Lanka, live on Sky Sports Cricket from 6pm on Thursday.

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