Jos Buttler, the wicketkeeper-batsman for Rajasthan Royals, has come out and cleared that the surprising idea for him to open alongside Ben Stokes, while chasing the target against Chennai Super Kings, was the idea of RR's mentor Shane Warne

While chasing the target of 176 against the CSK, the Royals needed a good start and at a brisk pace. It perhaps prompted them to go for the unexpected option. Jos Buttler, who played the matchwinning knock of 95 in the end for RR, while talking to the StarSports was quoted saying that, "At the half time. He [Stokes] was just struggling a little bit with his hamstring, whether it was cramp or something else, he was struggling with his running. And as we've seen on this ground, actually in the middle overs, trying to push twos and run hard when boundaries are a little harder"

"Shane Warne sort of said why don't you go at the top and play with some freedom and try and see if that comes off because he felt like he was going to find it hard in the middle with his running. I kept nicking the strike off him at the top, but it was a nice experiment and I think Shane Warne has obviously been a proactive guy and thought why not, let's try it."

Very curiously Buttler has come across as someone who doesn't quite plays the reverse-sweep, but he did last night in a crucial moment against Shane Watson in the 16th over of the chase. 

Buttler talked about by saying, "I'm 100% committed when he's at the end of his mark, really. I just felt like we needed a boundary, and actually, watching KL Rahul bat here the other day in the last over, against Jaydev, he played a few reverse sweeps and that made me think maybe that was a good option. It's a shot I'm quite confident with and I wasn't really finding the boundary elsewhere."

Buttler further added about his knock and the game that, "I had some interesting conversations at the time out. Initially, we were going well and it was just trying to keep that going. I talked about just trying not to lose my intent. You know, [in] a few games, having come out of the Powerplay, I've felt like I've lost that boundary option so I was trying to [address] that"

"And as we saw when we bowled, how it got harder and harder, the decision was whether we try to win the game earlier, and get it down to nearer a run a ball for the last three or four overs or trying to take it deep. And I think we were sort of a little bit taken [aback] by what bowlers they bowled at certain times and it dictated [our plans] a bit."