WHEN Jos Buttler replaced Matt Prior as England keeper last summer it marked a significant generational shift in the team. But in one respect the story was one of continuity. Like Prior seven years earlier, Buttler had been picked to score runs, even though he was not the best wicketkeeper in the country.

Buttler, who did not even have a full season of keeping in first-class cricket before playing Test cricket for England, is part of a trend. Counties and national sides increasingly prefer to pick wicketkeepers who can bat in the top seven, and often the top six, rather than more skilled practitioners behind the stumps. The need for batting prowess has been made more urgent by the decline of the great allrounder: nobody