Jos Buttler will be donning the wicketkeeping gloves yet again in the IPL after renouncing them for England. With Sanju Samson doing the job for the Rajasthan Royals behind the stumps, Buttler wasn't really required to keep wickets but with Gujarat Titans paying him INR 15.75 crore at the IPL 2025 auction, the balance of the side would suggest that the former England white-ball captain reprises his role as a keeper, which skipper Shubman Gill confirmed at his side's pre-tournament press conference.
"Jos Buttler is picked as a wicketkeeper," Gill told the reporters in Ahmedabad on Wednesday when asked if he was selected just as a batter in the squad. Even though the Titans have a couple of more keeping options in Delhi's Anuj Rawat and Jharkhand's Kumar Kushagra, it seems like Buttler will have to do the job for now.
Buttler doesn't keep wickets any more in international cricket and delegated the role to the likes of Phil Salt and Jamie Smith, after returning from a long injury break that saw him miss four months of cricket after the T20 World Cup last year to elongate his career just as a batter and hopefully, a leader in the side.
But him keeping wickets would mean that the Titans can either play Mahipal Lomror or someone like Washington Sundar at No 6, who both can impact the game in multiple ways with Rahul Tewatia and Rashid Khan to follow. The Titans have assembled probably the most all-round squad after the disappointment of last year and with one season already into captaincy, Gill too will be confident taking the challenge head-on with the experienced heads of Buttler, Mohammed Siraj, Kagiso Rabada and Rashid Khan alongside him in the roster.
Gujarat Titans squad: Shubman Gill (c), Sai Sudarshan, Rashid Khan, Jos Buttler (wk), Rahul Tewatia, Shahrukh Khan, Sherfane Rutherford, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Nishant Sindhu, Kagiso Rabada, Glenn Phillips, Mahipal Lomror, Kumar Kushagra (wk), Anuj Rawat (wk), Karim Janat, Gerald Coetzee, Manav Suthar, Washington Sundar, Arshad Khan, Gurnoor Brar, R Sai Kishore, Ishant Sharma, Jayant Yadav, Kulwant Khejroliya.