When Jos Buttler walked into the press room at Karachi’s National Stadium alongside coach Brendon McCullum at 6.38pm local time on Friday evening it was obvious what was coming.
Less than 48 hours earlier in a similar room at Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium following the Champions Trophy defeat by Afghanistan, Buttler had admitted he was considering his future.
We all knew the resignation was coming.
Yet the speed of the decision – remember Buttler had said he didn’t want to make “an emotional decision” after England’s tournament exit on Wednesday – caught everybody on the hop, including his teammates.
For much of the day, reporters travelling with the team in Pakistan were readying themselves for a media interaction with Joe Root.
The news that Mark Wood is likely to need surgery on the left knee he injured in the Afghanistan match was the story of the day.
All that went out of the window as soon as Buttler walked into that room with McCullum. The fact cameras from Sky Sports News were present was a big clue something was happening.
Just a few hours earlier, The i Paper, in a casual chat with England’s media manager, Danny Reuben, at the team hotel had been advised that Buttler probably wouldn’t be announcing anything for a few weeks.
But unbeknownst to Reuben and almost all of the touring party, Buttler had told McCullum he was standing down in his hotel room the previous evening.
It’s remarkable the news was kept under wraps.
However, there was good reason for that. Namely that Buttler only announced his decision to England’s squad five minutes before they left for training at 6pm local time. Calling everyone together in the team room at the hotel, an emotional Buttler told them the news.
Within 45 minutes, he walked into that room at the National Stadium alongside McCullum to tell the world.
Three questions from English reporters were taken. Buttler then left, with McCullum now taking centre stage.
“It’s all pretty raw, right?” he admitted before going on to detail how Buttler had broken the news to him.
Buttler was honest enough to admit he had decided the time to go was right almost immediately after the Afghanistan defeat.
“I probably knew, even coming into the tournament that it was going to be big for my captaincy and for where we wanted to go. I just feel like it’s the right time for me and the team, and for somebody else to get the opportunity with Baz to take this side back where it needs to be.”
While the past two years have been terrible for England’s white-ball teams, Buttler will always have the T20 World Cup win he memorably led his team to in a dramatic final against Pakistan at Melbourne in November 2022.
Nobody will ever forget the part he played in England’s white-ball renaissance under Eoin Morgan, his predecessor as captain, following the dire 50-over World Cup campaign in Australia and New Zealand in 2015.
Four years later he was the man who took off the bails to run out New Zealand’s Martin Guptil at the climax of the dramatic Super Over at Lord’s that sealed England’s logic-defying World Cup win on a boundary countback.
His team would have been nowhere near winning either had Buttler not saved the day with the bat alongside Ben Stokes, the pair’s 110-run fifth-wicket stand that resurrected England’s hopes followed by another 15 runs from the same pair in the Super Over that proved just enough to carry their country to victory in the tournament for the first and, so far, only time.
England, under his captaincy, may have surrendered that title with almost embarrassing ease in India in 2023.
But that day at Lord’s, not to mention the 12 hundreds, 53 half-centuries and almost 9,000 runs across both white-ball formats, are what really count.
‘BY THE BAREST OF ALL MARGINS’
It’s been five years since that epic World Cup final
(via @ICC) #OnThisDay pic.twitter.com/x245ftegwX
— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) July 14, 2024
Buttler will carry on playing for his country back in the ranks. Whether he tastes another 50-over World Cup, with the next in Southern Africa in late 2027, remains to be seen. He will be 37 by then. Yet if he is still around and in form, England will be in a better place for it.
As for his successor, McCullum has admitted this is likely to be announced in the next couple of weeks.
Harry Brook, Buttler’s deputy, is the overwhelming favourite. Any decision, though, will have to be taken by McCullum and director of cricket Rob Key in consultation with the England & Wales Cricket Board.
“There’s some really good leaders that have developed,” said McCullum.
“That’s the mark of Jos’ captaincy – he’s brought on other leaders within the group. They’re young guys who have got good cricketing knowledge and he’s encouraged them to learn and develop as leaders.
“So there’s some really good options floating around. I’m sure whoever we settle on we’ve just got to make sure we’re giving them the right support so we can improve our performances.”
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