PAUL NEWMAN: It's a no-brainer for England to recall Jos Buttler

It sounded ludicrous at first. Jos Buttler to return to the England Test side and open the batting? Did they not try that with Jason Roy not too long ago and see it rebound in their faces?

But it did not take long for a suggestion — that would have been considered stark raving bonkers a month ago — made by Kumar Sangakkara during Sky's coverage of the final Test against New Zealand to sound inspired.

It is obvious, really. Who else should open the batting for this transformed Test side but the most gifted batter in England's limited-overs history, now at the peak of his white-ball powers? Of course Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum should look to Buttler.

Yes, he has played 57 Tests and only fleetingly displayed those unique gifts before finally being left out, seemingly for the last time, after last winter's Ashes.

But things are different now. We have long known that Buttler is among Rob Key's favourite players and one of the first things McCullum did when becoming Test coach was mention Buttler's name as someone he would love to get involved.

We all assumed he meant as a wicketkeeper-batsman but Ben Foakes did much to nail down his place before a back injury and Covid ruled him out of the final Test and, when he was injured, England first gave the gloves to Jonny Bairstow, then turned to Sam Billlings.

Such is England's approach that McCullum and Stokes were probably thinking of the opener's position in the first place. Certainly that is where there will be a vacancy unless Zak Crawley makes a substantial score against India in the Test starting at Edgbaston on Friday. Alex Lees also has a bit to do to convince he is a long-term solution at the top of the order.

There would be no better time to bring back Buttler than