T20 World Cup, England vs Sri Lanka: Jos Buttler On The Cusp Of Big T20I Milestone | Cricket News

England have so far won all three of their Group 1 matches in the Super 12 stage of the ICC T20 World Cup and victory against Sri Lanka on Monday will all but ensure a semi-final spot for Eoin Morgan’s team. While it has been a complete team performance from the Three Lions so far in the tournament, one man who has shone bright for them is talismanic wicket-keeper batter Jos Buttler. His unbeaten 71 in England’s last outing against Australia has put him on top of the run-charts for his team and he is only behind the Pakistan opening duo of Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan, in the list of highest run-scorers in the tournament so far, among those who started the tournament from the Super 12 stage.

When Buttler comes out to bat at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Monday, he will be on the cusp of a big T20I milestone. Buttler has so far scored 1984 runs in 77 innings and is just 16 runs short of becoming only the second Englishman after Eoin Morgan to get past the 2000-run mark in cricket’s shortest format at the international level.

Not just that, the Sri Lankans will be wary of England’s opener as he has a great track record against the Island nation. Buttler has scored 256 runs in 7 T20I innings against Sri Lanka, which is the most by an English batter in the format. Buttler has scored three fifties against Sri Lanka, which have come in his last 5 innings (latest first): 68*,13,73*,66* and 26.

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His unbeaten half-century against Australia in the previous outing was his 15th in T20Is,  which took him ahead of Morgan in the list of English batsmen with most half-centuries in T20Is.

Buttler has been one of the biggest reasons behind England’s revival in white-ball cricket over the past 6 years and the team would hope he could put in more inspirational performance to help the team go all the way in the tournament.