De Villiers ‘role model’ for England’s Buttler

BIRMINGHAM: Jos Buttler said AB de Villiers was his “model” but insisted he’d a long way to go to match the standards of the South African despite a dazzling hundred against New Zealand at Edgbaston on Tuesday.
Buttler’s century off just 66 balls, which followed an almost as quick 71-ball ton from Joe Root, allowed England to post a mammoth score of 408 for nine in the first of a five-match one-day series with the Black Caps.
England were in danger of undoing all their good early work at 202 for six but Buttler and Adil Rashid (69) belied the team’s reputation for conservative one-day cricket during a stunning partnership of 177 — a seventh-wicket record in all ODIs.
Buttler’s ‘360 degree’ approach to batting has invited comparisons with Proteas maestro de Villiers, but he told reporters: “I’m not sure I’m quite at those guys’ level yet.
“AB de Villiers is someone who has been a role model for me for a long period of time — someone who has changed batting, I think, over the past few years — and everyone is trying to emulate him.
“That’s the role I want to play in English cricket. I want to be that guy who can go out like I did and play those kind of innings and try to do that consistently,” added Buttler.