3 min readUpdated: Mar 28, 2026 06:52 PM IST
England’s Jos Buttler who didn’t have the best of time in the T20 World Cup where he struggled to make an impact, scoring just 87 runs in 8 matches said that the biggest challenge that an international cricketer faces is to know how to shut off the outside noise.
“Obviously, you need to be playing well technically and mentally. You need to be in a good space with the cricket and work on things. But actually, one of the biggest challenges is dealing with the outside noise. And also your own expectation and your own comparisons against what you believe you’re capable of. That’s always the challenge, to not allow that to overshadow playing the game and being free and having the freedom to walk out there with your bat and look to score runs,” he said in an interview to PTI.
“I’ve been playing for a long time now, there’s been different times in my career that you’re learning the same lesson, actually, over and over again. And it’s a world now where there’s more eyes on the game than there’s ever been. There’s more opinion. So you just have to insulate yourself from that. You have a tight-knit circle of people that you trust and you’ll take advice from and you’ll ask for advice from. And then outside of that, it’s just trying to quieten the noise and just play,” he added.
Buttler who will represent Gujarat Titans in the Indian Premier League this year, also lauded his captain Shubman Gill. “I’ve really enjoyed working with Shubman. He’s very much authentic and himself, which I think is one of the greatest hallmarks of really good leaders,” he said.
“I’m sure he’ll have learned a hell of a lot over the last year, obviously, captaining a few seasons with Gujarat. He’s now captain of India and I’m sure he will have learned lots of different things. So I think that’s a credit to him that he’s just his own person. He’s doing it his way. So the captaincy is obviously working well for him and I’m looking forward to playing under his leadership again this year,” he added.
