England are not overly concerned about Buttler’s fitness ahead of the first T20I on September 11 and are hoping he can captain the team throughout Australia’s eight-match white-ball tour. England’s new squad will report to the Utilita Bowl on Sunday for a two-day training session, where the medical team will get a clearer picture of whether Buttler will be fit to play.
But he is now out of contention, their coach Dale Benkenstein confirmed to BBC Radio Lancashire. “We’ve had some bad news about his recovery,” Benkenstein said. “He had an injury that he was recovering from and he’s twisted it a bit again. Not only has he been ruled out of our T20s, I think he’s struggling to get into international play. He wanted to play for us.”
Lancashire will field other England players at Hove on Wednesday night, with Salt, Liam Livingstone and Sakib Mahmood all expected to feature. Jofra Archer is expected to feature for Sussex, the T20 side captained by Tymal Mills. Hove have not played a T20 quarter-final in front of a crowd since 2019 and have sold out of tickets in the past two weeks.
