England’s golden sapling has been underperforming in
South Africa but it would be silly to apply normal rules to one of the game’s most thrilling talents
![Chucking Jos Buttler from England’s Test side would be hasty and foolish | Jonathan Liew](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/bdcc359432cc8514aaca1035c5424991e89cb709/734_332_2777_1666/master/2777.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctb3BpbmlvbnMucG5n&enable=upscale&s=b4e1835d33d9d6e899a4dc5b62c8bc63)
Spoiler alert: it’s Joe Denly next. And then Zak Crawley. Then, it’ll be time for Ben Stokes to be taken down a peg. Then probably Dom Sibley. Then, sometime next summer, Rory Burns or Jofra Archer. Then Denly again. Welcome to the
England Test team in 2020, a toxic chalice of confected jeopardy in which somebody must always be in crisis. Somebody – anybody – must always be hovering just above the trapdoor.
Related: Paul Collingwood insists Jos Buttler will be ‘backed to the hilt’