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Jos Buttler has been impressed by how quickly young all-rounders Jacob Bethell and Dan Mousley have settled into life with England.
The Warwickshire pair are close friends and have started their international careers near enough in tandem, offering compelling glimpses of their potential in the Caribbean.
Bethell has amassed a couple of classy half-centuries, including an unbeaten 58 which went a long way to claiming victory in the first T20 in Barbados, where he was born and raised up until the age of 13.
Mousley, meanwhile, collected his first wickets for England as they moved 2-0 up in the five-match series and how he and Bethell have fared has greatly encouraged England’s white-ball captain.
Buttler, who thrashed an unbeaten 83 off 45 balls to seal a seven-wicket win on Sunday, said: “They’ve done brilliantly well. Everyone’s seen the talent that Bethell has and where he can go.
“I like Dan’s character. He just seems like he is someone who always wants the ball in hand or wants to be involved in the hot spots in the field. Obviously, he’s a real competitor with the bat.
“But a lot of the transition is dealing with the occasion, the extra scrutiny, the bigger crowds and they look very comfortable, which is a great sign for the two of them moving forward.
“I’m sure it’s nicer for them to be in the team together, they’re great mates and they’re having a great time.”
“If he scores runs, it’s brilliant for us,” Mousley, who at 23 is two years older than Bethell, said. “When he got 50 in the ODI, though, afterwards, I was like ‘OK, that’s up to me to get one now’.
“But we use each other more to bounce ideas. We train together at Warwickshire, we room together, so we spend so much time together and playing with him here is really special.
“He obviously gets to do it with me at Edgbaston and it’s nice to come here on his ground and play with him.”
Mousley is an unorthodox off-spinner who changes his angles by coming over and round the wicket and he showed his variation with a 72mph seam-up dart that yorked big-hitting Windies captain Rovman Powell.
Entrusted to bowl the final over despite Saqib Mahmood having one left, the assertive Mousley conceded 15 but took out the dangerous Romario Shepherd to finish with two for 29 from his four overs.
“If you don’t back yourself, no one will,” he added. “For me, it’s having that confidence. The confidence comes from just doing well at Warwickshire and bringing it in here.
“They say off-spinners can’t bowl at right-handers but I don’t believe in that, I made it clear at Warwickshire I didn’t believe in that and then ended up getting a bit of confidence.
You just have to be different. If you stand still in T20 cricket, you get found out. It’s trying to stay ahead of the curve
Dan Mousley
“You just have to be different. If you stand still in T20 cricket, you get found out. It’s trying to stay ahead of the curve and just try to learn as much as you possibly can from different games.”
England travelled to St Lucia on Monday ahead of three more T20s this week and just one win on the island would see them end a run of five successive series defeats in the Caribbean in all formats.
The tourists made the short flight west without leg-spinner Jafer Chohan, who is set to return home from Barbados with a view to managing his workload ahead of an England Lions tour to South Africa.
Chohan became the first graduate of the South Asian Cricket Academy to be named in an England men’s squad but did not make his debut in the Caribbean and has been released early.
