Jos Buttler has had an amazing season in the Indian Premier League and the wicketkeeper-batsman is surely not disturbed to have left the tournament at a crunch time as he now has the chance to represent his country in Tests almost a year and a half after his last appearance in the format.

Buttler has been an integral part of the England team in limited-over formats and has played a total of 170 ODIs and T20Is. On the other hand, he managed to play only 18 Tests for England and hasn’t played a Test since December 2016.

The 27-year-old certainly didn’t expect to be recalled and hence, had his plans ready for the end of this summer. He had thought that he would be ready for a lot of Championship games for his county side—Lancashire. According to him, being recalled to the Test side feels like a second debut.

“It wasn’t particularly on my radar,” Buttler reportedly said. “It’s a fantastic surprise, an incredible opportunity and it feels like another debut really.”

“I sort of planned the end of this summer and I knew I was going to be available for a lot of Championship cricket for Lancashire, so that was a real focus of mine to target red-ball cricket. You always think maybe that race is run so to get that call – it’s unbelievable and an awesome opportunity,” he added.

Buttler’s IPL side, Rajasthan Royals, promoted him to the opening slot in their first game in May and that decision did pay them off. An underperforming Buttler suddenly went to smash five consecutive fifties in his six games as an opener for the Rajasthan-based franchise at an average of 107. In his 13 matches for RR, Buttler scored 548 runs, 428 of which came his last six matches.

However, things will be different along with the format itself when Buttler returns to the five-day game. He is expected to play a lower middle-order batsman and the right-hander will be expressing himself in that position as well.

“They want me to play in the way that suits me and in the fashion that will get the best out of myself. For me it’s about expressing myself, trusting my instincts and allowing that to flourish rather than fighting it. I’m pretty sure I won’t be opening and trying to slog it in the first six overs but hopefully I can entertain,” said Buttler.

Rejuvenated by the Test recall Buttler doesn’t feel that people are losing their interest in the red-ball game. He used Virat Kohli’s Surrey deal as an example to prove his point and said that this format is the pinnacle of cricket.

“You get the feeling talking to everyone that they still feel Test cricket is the best”, he said. “Virat Kohli signing for Surrey to get used to playing in England so he can play well in Test matches shows that it’s at the forefront of players’ minds – Test cricket is still the pinnacle.”