England squad: Jos Buttler handed shock recall for first Test with Pakistan

Buttler has not played a Test since being dropped after the tour of India 18 months ago, since which time he has almost exclusively played white-ball cricket

Buttler has been handed a recall to the England Test side (Getty)

In the stunning call to bring Jos Buttler out of the Test wilderness, the new national selector Ed Smith has already offered a telling insight into his thinking. The inclusion of the destructive Buttler for next week’s first Test against Pakistan is an indication that future England cricketers will be picked not purely on form and pedigree, but impact and personality.

Doubtless Smith would stop well short of saying as much himself, particularly during his first media engagement in the new role, a 20-minute briefing during which he rationalised his first squad with the delicacy of a barrister and the diplomacy of a politician. He was eager to stress that there was no such thing as a formal selection policy in itself, nor a cast-iron set of principles to which he would be held.

But in his frequent references not simply to Buttler’s transformative capabilities with the bat, but his qualities as a fielder, team-mate and leader, Smith made it clear that runs alone would not be sufficient to win selection. And certainly not runs in the much-maligned County Championship, in which Buttler has played just six times since 2014. Rather, it is the full package that will be considered: form, flair, fielding, character, impact, and runs (or wickets).

These are the same factors that earned 20-year-old off-spinner Dom Bess a first call-up, capitalising on the misfortune of his Somerset team-mate Jack Leach in suffering a broken thumb on the day the squad was being selected. Bess has played just 16 first-class matches, but what Smith described as his “character and philosophy”, as well as his capacity to rise to a challenge, saw him edge out the even less experienced Amar Virdi at Surrey or the vastly more experienced Moeen Ali.

It was a theme repeated elsewhere in the side. Not even an eight-hour double century for Hampshire this week was enough to save James Vince’s Test career: dropped not simply for a poor winter, but for a basic meekness, a long-standing inability to play the match-winning innings required of a Test No3. Mark Stoneman, who has had a shocking start to the season for Surrey, has been reprieved on the basis of his chemistry with Alastair Cook. Joe Root, meanwhile, will move up to No3

But it is the inclusion of Buttler, who on Tuesday narrowly missed out on a record sixth consecutive half-century for Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League, that is the most seismic selection. He has not played a Test since being dropped after the tour of India 18 months ago, since which time he has almost exclusively played white-ball cricket.

Yet unlike his short-form colleagues Alex Hales, Adil Rashid and Eoin Morgan, who largely resigned themselves to never playing Test cricket again, Buttler never has. It was why he decided to play four County Championship games for Lancashire towards the end of last summer, although an average of 17 hardly suggested a seamless transition.

This is Smith's first selection (Getty)

And indeed, the inclusion of Buttler is a risk on more levels than one. His record in the first-class game has never been unimpeachable: no century in 46 innings, going back almost four years. The last time he hit a red ball in anger was for Lancashire eight months ago, and it remains to be seen how his Test match technique will fare against Pakistan’s prize seam trio of Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Abbas and Rahat Ali.

The other risk is in terms of perception. Buttler’s selection is essentially an admission by the new England selection committee that playing four-day cricket is no longer a requirement to being picked for England. The likes of Joe Clarke, Ben Foakes, Liam Livingstone and dozens of others have spent the last few months diligently preparing for the new season, toiling away in freezing conditions, quietly accumulating Championship runs (although in the case of Livingstone, not that many). They may ultimately wonder what was the point.

Yet Smith, Root and coach Trevor Bayliss have decided to gamble not just on Buttler’s form and counter-attacking ability at No7, but his galvanising effect on team-mates and a home crowd. Whether this now opens the possibility to the likes of Morgan and Hales returning to the Test side via the side door was a question Smith was not prepared to engage with.

“I wouldn’t say a special case is being made [for Buttler],” he said. “I wouldn’t say we’ve thought about all the ramifications of what this does for the qualification criteria. The first thing we wanted to do was to get the team we wanted to play against Pakistan. That was as far as it went.

Buttler hasn't played Test cricket for 18 months (Getty)

“The first topic of conversation was how we could improve England’s top five. The view of the selection panel was that Jonny Bairstow moving up to No5 was a really good move. He has the physical capacity to keep wicket and keep his excellent form as a top batsman. That left an opportunity at No7.

“I’ve always been interested in Jos playing that role. He’s done that role, playing No7 as just a batter, and had a little bit of success. But overwhelmingly, we felt that for a player of his unique gifts, what he brings to the team as a competitive presence, as a dynamic athlete, as someone playing with such confidence and flair, this was the right time. It’s absolutely not my job to tell people how to play. But Jos playing his way has the potential to be a really positive force.”

Are we reading too much into all this? Perhaps. Whatever team England pick will probably be good enough to see off Pakistan in home conditions in May, who according to CricViz are one of the weakest international sides against the seaming delivery, and only just staggered over the line against Ireland on Tuesday. And the first Test of a summer has always been the perfect time to set out a stall, to wipe the slate clean, to err on the side of boldness. Nevertheless, the feeling of newness and possibility is unmistakable. English Test cricket is entering a new era, one in which the hard rationales of the past will not necessarily apply.

Squad: Joe Root (Yorkshire, capt), James Anderson (Lancashire), Jonny Bairstow (Yorkshire, wkt), Dom Bess (Somerset), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Jos Buttler (Lancashire), Alastair Cook (Essex), Dawid Malan (Middlesex), Ben Stokes (Durham), Mark Stoneman (Surrey), Chris Woakes (Warwickshire), Mark Wood (Durham)