Buttler's timely intervention reinvigorates England

The prospects for England at the forthcoming World Cup have not been much of a conversation starter in recent times but they do have a few players who are starting to get people talking. Jos Buttler and Joe Root, with a sparkling, match-winning partnership in Hambantota, followed Moeen Ali's comet-like appearance in Sri Lanka to throw a little light on the path ahead.

England's victory in the third ODI has helped maintain interest in a series that would have stretched out forbiddingly if they had gone 3-0 down. Buttler admitted it would have been tough to come back from there; instead, even with their captain suspended, England are suddenly asking a few questions of the hosts.

It seems some time since an opposition captain had to plan for two wildcards in an England line-up but that problem is now facing Angelo Mathews. Buttler, who struck the fastest ODI hundred by an Englishman in the home series between the sides earlier this year, was something of a known quantity but the impact provided by Moeen - kept back in May to allow him to prepare for a Test debut - has given England the capacity for mayhem at either end of the innings.

Mathews described both in similar terms. "Moeen Ali takes a lot of risk and it pays off for him," he said. "He's one of those players who likes to go after the bowling. You have to get him out. You have to attack him early on, and try and get his wicket. We can't be trying to bowl dot balls at him all the time, because then he hits one out of the park. We need to attack him early."

And of Buttler: "He is a very dangerous player. He's one of those who can play all around the park. He's got the shots. He's very difficult to bowl at at the end, especially with his paddle sweeps, reverse sweeps - all that. He's got everything. We need to get rid of him as soon as possible when he comes into bat, because he can change the game very quickly."

Buttler finished off Sri Lanka with a flurry of fours on Wednesday, after Moeen had provided the platform with another rabble-rousing fifty, this time from 29 balls. Root's bridge-building between the two featured some tidy brickwork - though it was only saved from collapse by a Dhammika Prasad no-ball - and England could take added encouragement from the performances of three of the less-experienced members of the batting line-up.

Buttler has been around the longest, having made his debut in the UAE in 2012, at a time when England were beginning a run of victories that would take them briefly to No. 1 in the world. During a 40-match career, he has provided match-winning impetus at Trent Bridge, Cardiff and Perth but it felt like England needed this most recent effort more than at any other time.

With England taking a tunnel-vision approach to one-day cricket over the next few months, aiming to peak at the World Cup, Buttler will be given scope and opportunity to become a consistent menace. He practises his repertoire diligently and in MS Dhoni, a fellow wicketkeeper-destroyer and the man who hit the winning runs at the 2011 tournament, has picked a handy role model.

"If it is the scoop shot, I want to be hitting that 10 times out of 10, or the reverse sweep. If someone misses their yorker I want to consistently hit it for six," Buttler said. "The best players in the world do that, people like Dhoni, the margin for error against him is so minimal, because if you miss he punishes you. That's the skill level everyone aspires to get to, so that if someone misses their skill, you capitalise on that."

If Buttler remains a rough diamond, it is because of his keeping, which still needs a little polish. The wags might say that increases the likeness to Dhoni but Buttler has also been hard at work at this area of his game. In Sri Lanka, he has been able to ask advice from Bruce French, the wicketkeeping coach, as well as Paul Farbrace and Peter Moores, also former keepers, and his performances behind the stumps have so far been tidy.

"If you go unnoticed you're generally doing a good job," he said. "I've got loads of areas I want to improve on my wicketkeeping. In one-day cricket, you don't touch the ball too many times, it might just be a chance. So a four-month period of one-day cricket is really good for my wicketkeeping, to get in that mindset so I'm always aware that the time I'm going to get the ball is generally going to be a chance."

As softly spoken as he is brazen with the bat, Buttler nevertheless articulates the mood in the camp confidently, saying "there's a great buzz around the whole group." Alastair Cook will sit out the next game, back in Colombo, but if his deputy, Eoin Morgan, can harness the energy provided by the likes of Buttler, Moeen and Root, then talking up England's chances won't be so hard after all.

"We knew we needed to win in Hambantota, coming here 3-0 down would be very tough," Buttler said, "we really feel we can kick on now. We've got that winning feeling back, which is great, we haven't had that often enough recently, so that needs to become a habit. If we can make it 2-2 going to Kandy, it sets up the rest of the series brilliantly.

"The best preparation for a World Cup would be to win this series, win games of cricket and get that feeling of knowing how to win games. You could probably tell the other night that we hadn't won many games recently so we probably made it a bit harder for ourselves than we could of after that great start. The World Cup is still a long way away, there's plenty of games before that and the best way we can prepare is to win those."