‘He’s doing all he can’: England back Buttler to end miserable run of form

England have not committed to fielding their strongest side in Friday’s do-not-necessarily-have-to-win T20 World Cup encounter with New ­Zealand but Jos Buttler will be given the chance to turn around his ­miserable run of form, with the team’s coaching staff convinced that a return to familiar lofty standards is imminent.

After six games at the tournament, Buttler’s top score is 26, against Nepal in England’s opener, and in their past four matches he has contributed three, three, seven and two. It is his worst run in international T20s since he followed 13 in his first ever innings with five successive single-digit scores, between February and September 2012.

“I’ve played a lot against Jos, he’s one of the most dangerous white-ball batters to play the game,” said Tim Southee, England’s bowling coach. “When you’re that good and you have a bit of a blip, I guess you feel a bit more pressure. But he’s hitting it as well as he [ever] has in the nets. I’m sure he’s only a couple of good strikes away from another amazing innings. He’s doing his business, doing all he can to perform.”

England have not yet named their team for Friday’s game, with Southee saying only that they would “look at conditions and pick what team they think is best suited to match up against New Zealand on that surface”, but he confirmed that ­Buttler would be selected. “He’s such a ­dangerous player,” Southee said. “Any time you see his name on the team sheet it’s a concern for opposition bowlers.”

On Thursday the England bowler Mark Wood told Buttler to believe in himself. Drafted in to cover for ­Buttler on the former white-ball captain’s podcast For the Love of Cricket, Wood said: “I’m sure he’s been through things like this before, and he can just call on those experiences. I’m sure it’ll come good. As a fan everybody wants everyone to hit a hundred every time, but cricket doesn’t work like that. He might have had a couple of low scores but he’s that good his class will eventually come through. If I had any advice for Jos it would be to keep believing in yourself as much as we all believe in you.”

Meanwhile Rob Walter, the New Zealand head coach, said they, too, were braced for a Buttler revival. “I don’t think you’d ever doubt the ­quality of Jos Buttler,” he said. “We know that all batters probably find a space in their career somewhere where there is a lull, and sometimes it only takes one knock for that to change. No one will ever doubt his quality, and so we won’t.”

Mark Wood has backed Jos Buttler. ‘I’m sure he’s been through things like this before, and he can just call on those experiences. I’m sure it’ll come good,’ Wood said. Photograph: Robbie Stephenson/PA

Buttler is the only member of ­England’s top seven not to have scored more than 40 at least once at the World Cup, but with several batters in search of peak form there should be no lack of motivation, even with a place in the final four already secured. They may be no longer in need of points but ^­England remain very much in pursuit of ­perfection, or something vaguely reminiscent of it.

Meanwhile, New Zealand need a win to secure their own place in the final four and both teams know that whoever prevails will top their group and in so doing almost certainly avoid South Africa, who have established themselves as the tournament’s form side after victory over India was ­followed by a crushing win against West Indies on Thursday.

One source of encouragement for England’s batters is New Zealand’s lack of a cutting edge in the tournament. The Kiwis have taken only 27 wickets, just over half the 51 taken by England, who have played one game more. As a result batters have a much higher average when playing New Zealand than the World Cup’s other leading teams: every other side in the Super 8s is also among the eight against whom ­batters at the World Cup have the lowest ­averages, while New Zealand are 15th in those ­rankings. Against England the ­average batter has scored 18.11, against the Black Caps 28.62 – and at almost identical strike rates.

“In some of those matches where we didn’t take a full set of 10 wickets we still won the game,” Walter said. “So we still managed to restrict them. In T20 cricket, sometimes restriction is as valuable as wickets. From our point of view taking wickets is just the end process of executing a skill. For us it’s responding to the conditions, understanding what we need to do as a bowling unit and then collectively doing it. And whether that has a team seven down or all out or two down, if we win the game it’s irrelevant.”