Rob Key feels Jos Buttler has the potential to become a "great" Test match player

Jos Buttler was dropped from the England Test team after a nightmare Ashes campaign. But, Rob Key feels that the IPL Orange Cap winner still has a future in red-ball cricket for England.

England Men’s Cricket Managing Rob Key feels Jos Buttler has the potential to become a "great" Test match player despite his failure to produce the goods in the Ashes. 

Buttler has appeared in 57 Tests for England, scoring 2,907 runs at an average of 31.94, with two centuries. During the Ashes, however, he only scored 107 runs at 15.28, and after missing the final Test of the series due to injury, he was replaced by Ben Foakes for England's March tour of the West Indies.

Given Buttler's standing as one of the top white ball players in the world and the fact that he is set to succeed Eoin Morgan as England's ODI and T20I captain when the 35-year-old retires from international cricket, many may believe Buttler's Test career is gone. When asked about Buttler's future, Key has left the door open for him to return.

"Well, at the moment, Jos is definitely playing white ball [cricket]," Key stated on the podcast ‘The Vaughan and Tuffers Cricket Club.’ “Jos Buttler isn't in that Test squad, but I don't see why he should retire from Test cricket,”

"Now, unless he turns around and says 'I just want to go down that white-ball path' then that's a different conversation. He's had a pretty big IPL. I think he'll come back and then he will start thinking about things but even if in a year's time, whenever it is, I don't see why he has to retire unless he turns around and says, 'I have no interest in the red-ball game whatsoever, it's not for me.' I always thought that he could be an outstanding Test match batsman-wicket-keeper.”

"I still believe that, and I see no reason why he shouldn't be able to do so, or why we should have to make a decision anyway. McCullum and Stokes, in my opinion, can get the best out of all of these players. We will see. It's that balance between loyalty and making sure that everyone else around that team sees that you have a bit of faith in the people that are around," he added.