Sometimes it's good to be bad. Jos Buttler put down a simple chance off Phil Salt in the very first over of the game between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Gujarat Titans and that spurred him on to be better with the bat. Considering he was already averaging 94.66 against these opponents since IPL 2022, the extra motivation was likely to produce something special. And it did - a match-winning, unbeaten 73 off 39 balls, not to mention the return of a smile that he seemed to have lost captaining England in white-ball cricket over the last few years.
"I thought the bowlers did a fantastic job," Buttler said after GT restricted RCB to 169. "We probably, if we fielded it a bit better, myself, looking at myself very much so, then we would have been chasing a few less.
"I was pretty embarrassed, especially with [dropping] Salty. He's a dangerous player. So the only thing I can think of, I was trying to throw it up to earlier, a bit like Herschelle Gibbs style [who dropped Steve Waugh in that fashion during the 1999 World Cup] but I didn't even... I barely got a glove on it, it hit me in the chest. But due to that embarrassment, I was pretty determined to try and score some runs."
Buttler's previous six innings against RCB, going backwards, had read 100*, 0, 0, 106*, 8, 70*. It was this version of him that walked out to bat on Wednesday night to crash five fours and six sixes. Not the one that relinquished the England captaincy after a dismal run at the Champions Trophy.
"I was trying to play with lots of freedom, lots of intent," he said. "I had a few months of pretty unenjoyable cricket, so trying to make sure I'm out there giving my best, and obviously a new team, new franchise, and excited to be here."
Buttler was signed by GT in the IPL auction in November for INR 15.75 crore, and although he is playing a different role here, at No. 3, to the one at Rajasthan Royals, where he had had a highly successful spell opening the batting, it seems to be working. He is the third-highest run-getter so far this season with a tally of 166 at a strike rate of 172.91.
GT are fourth on the IPL 2025 points table with two wins from three games and head to Hyderabad next to play Sunrisers Hyderabad on April 6.