BUTTLER STILL A KEY FIGURE

Jos’ record commands respect as Black Caps ignore form book

- FROM DAVID CHARLESWORTH

NEW ZEALAND remain wary of Jos Buttler - despite the England opener's wretched form at this T20 World Cup.

Buttler is widely regarded as England's greatest white-ball batter of all-time. All batters in their career sometimes have a lull - sometimes it takes one knock for that to change menacing presence at the top of the order in T20s, he is one of only four batters to go past 4,000 runs in the sprint format.

But the double World Cup winner has amassed just 62 runs in six innings in India and Sri Lanka and alarmingly failed to reach double figures in each of his past four visits to the crease.