Silverwood backs Buttler to prove his mantle, Denly to perform under pressure; praises Zak

England's head coach Chris Silverwood has backed the side's stand-in vice-captain Jos Buttler to pull up his socks in the longer format of the game and said that he would be given the 'best chance to succeed' in the remainder of the series. Buttler came in the line of fire of the critics after having scored just 35 runs and 9 runs in the first Test against the West Indies at the Ageas Bowl. Many cricketers, including former England player Darren Gough, have claimed that Buttler has just two more tests to save his red-ball format career. However, Chris Silverwood thinks so otherwise. 

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'Not going down that road'

Throwing his weight behind Jos Buttler, Chris Silverwood said that he wasn't going to take the route of pressurizing the wicketkeeper-batsman. The head coach pointed out that Buttler looked good with both at practice and with the bat in the first game and that he just needed to make the big scores in order to get himself firing all cylinders. Further, Silverwood said that the team was willing to give Buttler the 'best chance to succeed' in order to make sure the wicketkeeper-batsman thrives in an confident environment. 

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Talking about opener Joe Denly's selection in the first game, Silverwood said that the opener was trying really hard to excel and that the whole side was desperate to see Denly do well. Denly scored 18 and 29 in the opening Test. Silverwood admitted that Denly was under a lot of pressure to perform after the first Test. 

"Zak is improving constantly. He certainly showed maturity and the innings he played was very good. We have some young players in that side that seem to have good heads on their shoulders, and he's one of them.

"We'd have all loved to have seen him go on and get up to three figures but what we did was very good and helped us get into the position that we did." 

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'Two Test matches to save his career'

Former England player Darrem Gough opined that Buttler only had a couple of matches more to prove his mantle and 'save his Test career'. Gough pointed out that despite Buttler being a terrific talent and possessing the best shote ij the book, it was impossible for a batsman to fail with such consistency in Test cricket and that it had to be done away with. The former England cricketer also emphasized on the need to make the right call on picking players according to the conditions and not get too 'funky' about the choices. Gough also labeled Joe Denly as a lucky boy who got selected for the role of an opener despite three other tip contenders who had centuries to their names in Test cricket.

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