Explosive England keeper-batter Jos Buttler has opened up on the struggles to cope with the expectations of breaking the talismanic RCB batter Virat Kohli’s record for the most runs in a single IPL season.
Delving into the details, Buttler reached almost 500 runs during the halfway stage of the league phase in the IPL 2022 season and looked good enough to surpass Kohli’s 973 runs, which was set in IPL 2016.
Speaking on the For the Love of Cricket Podcast, Buttler disclosed that he couldn’t deal with the expectations well and got a few low scores. Eventually, Buttler ended the season with 863 runs in 17 matches.
“The hard time came when I was on 450 to 500 runs at the halfway stage, and the talk was like, ‘Can he reach Kohli’s record?’ I didn’t deal with that well, actually, and I didn’t tell anybody. Because of that, I got a few low scores. So I went from no expectations before the tournament to people asking if I could break Kohli’s record and score 1000 runs in an IPL season. And that just killed me for a few games,” Buttler said.
“I finally told Trevor Penney that this and the Orange Cap was really in my head. The stuff you shouldn’t be playing was affecting me. After that, I got my mojo back again in the playoffs. That was a massive season in my career even though I fell well short of Kohli. But at that time, it was the second most in a season and equalled him for the most hundreds in a season. Kohli is the best, so to put yourself in and around that was a huge confidence booster for me,” he added.
Further, Buttler revealed that he turned up to the IPL 2022 season undercooked, having recovered from his finger injury. Additionally, he also revealed Kumar Sangakkara’s wise words during that phase.
“It was a COVID IPL, and it was all played in Mumbai. In January, I broke my finger, so I played no cricket coming into the tournament. It weirdly was the best preparation for that IPL. I turned up to that IPL undercooked, really with no expectations, which in hindsight was one of the big plusses,” Buttler noted.
“I started that tournament so well and actually had a wobble near the end. I just got in such a rhythm, and Sangakkara was a really good coach, and he just told me not to force it early. He said even if someday I was 30 off 30, not to force it and just wait until I felt it and was going. Also, all the games were in Mumbai with good batting surfaces,” he concluded.
