‘Bit miserable’ Buttler backed to rediscover joy of playing

Brendon McCullum has backed Jos Buttler to captain England back to white-ball prominence, insisting he is confident the 33-year-old is the right man to lead the limited-overs teams.

- Simon Burnton

But he also suggested Buttler has been hampered by the fact he is "not naturally as expressive as some" and "has been a bit miserable at times".

McCullum said his own primary task as coach will be "to create an environment where guys feel positive, where they feel like they can allow their talent to come out".

Buttler led England to victory at the 2022 T20 World Cup five months after taking over from Eoin Morgan, but has not been able to sustain that level of success, with the team enduring extremely disappointing 50- and 20-over tournaments in the past 10 months.

Those performances cost the white-ball coach, Matthew Mott, his job, with McCullum this week adding that role to his Test team duties.