England cricket's one of the important batting pillars, Jos Buttler has opened up about the cricketers who have inspired him the most. Buttler named Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid who inspired him the most in his "formative years" as a batsman.
Along with England, Jos Buttler also represents Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League (IPL). He also scored a century in this year's IPL after having a quiet stretch of 5-6 matches with the bat. While talking to Cricbuzz in a candid interview, Jos Buttler said, "Those were my formative years, and watching that game with Ganguly and Dravid scoring big hundreds had an incredible impact.”
Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid were both at the zenith of their careers. Their partnership of 318 runs against Sri Lanka at Taunton became one of the iconic partnerships in modern-day cricket.
“Ind vs SL, Taunton, 1999 World Cup was my first experience of seeing Indian crowds and that ignites the fire of how passionate people are about the game and how cool it would be to play in a World Cup,” added Buttler.
The ICC Cricket World Cup of 1999 was won by Steve Waugh's Australia but all the limelight was taken by the Indian batsmen namely Dravid, Ganguly, and also Tendulkar. Ganguly scored his career-best innings of 183 in this very World Cup.
The 30-year old Jos Buttler would have been a nine-year-old child in the 1999 World Cup. Little did he know back then that he would be lifting the World Cup in the coming 20 years for his country.