Jos Buttler’s Test career is probably over – but the what-ifs remain

A Nat Sciver-Brunt paddle for four, a stream of blue shirts on to the field, and a game changed for ever. Mumbai Indians’ seven-wicket win against Delhi Capitals on Sunday brought the inaugural edition of the Women’s Premier League to a close. But the tournament is here to stay.

While the WPL represents something fresh and hopeful, the men’s version, the behemoth that is the Indian Premier League, stands for one thing now: full-scale power.

Back this week for the start of its 16th season, the IPL, whether you like it or not, barks out the direction of the men’s game, deals the cards and runs the playground. Last June it landed a rights deal worth $6bn and the two-month tournament is now the main piece of a larger operation. IPL franchise owners have taken over South Africa’s Twenty20 league, dipped their toes in to the United Arab Emirates, and they will even try to break America. And somehow at the centre of all of this is a softly-spoken Englishman.

Jos Buttler was more than just pretty in pink last year for the Rajasthan Royals. Seventeen innings brought 863 runs at an average of 57.53, including four centuries, as he took his team to a runners-up finish.Turning patient starts at the top of the order into a blaze of disorder,Buttler’s perfectly constructed knocks confirmed one thing: he is the IPL’s greatest English import.

Then came the home summer, England’s Test revolution and, for a brief second, a wild thought that did the rounds: could Buttler open the batting in Test cricket? When put to him by Jonathan Agnew, Buttler laughed it off: “I thought someone had written the wrong story to be honest.” The white ball and captaining England’s short-form sides was his focus and has been ever since. That narrowing of