Buttler feels England can win the Rose Bowl test

England wicket-keeper batsman Jos Buttler whose defiant 69 kept his side in the hunt for a big lead, said that the hosts can still win the fourth Test match, which is being played at the Rose Bowl in Southampton.

England currently stand at 260/8, having taken a 233-run lead and Buttler is highly confident of his side winning the game.

“Yes, definitely (we can win). You’ve seen the wear and tear in the wicket – even in the first innings as well, there was quite a bit of rough outside the right-hander’s off-stump. That’s promising for Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid – and with the seamers, we’ve seen a bit of variable bounce. So I think it’s nice to have the runs on the board,” Buttler, as quoted by The Indian Express said.

The right-hander helped England recover from a precarious 122/5 and put on partnerships with Ben Stokes and Sam Curran to give England a slight edge in the match.

Opening up on his partnership with Stokes, he said, “We’ve batted together in quite a lot of situations in different formats so that rapport is obviously comforting in a way and allows you to get the best out of each other.”

“We’ve got that right, left-hand combination, trying to rotate the strike and not let bowlers settle. We just went about it the same way – trying to extend the partnership, and slowly and steadily building the lead,” he added further.

He also spoke about England’s change in the batting order in the second innings and said that Root’s demotion to number four was a part of their strategy.

“It was just a pure tactical decision – Moeen has been in such fantastic form for the last couple of weeks, and bats at number three for Worcestershire. I’m not sure, moving forward, what will happen – but tactically for today, it just felt like the right decision. Moeen knew last night, so turning up this morning he was going to bat (at three),” he said.

On skipper Root’s batting, “I thought he batted fantastically well. He looked in great form and it could be the difference of one ball (between three and four) – so for a world-class player like Joe, I don’t think it affects him too much. I think in time stability would be important. At the minute, we’re just trying to work out the best combination.”