WICKETKEEPER-BATSMAN Jos Buttler hopes the World Cup can provide the perfect stage for his coming of age as an England player.

The 24-year-old has established himself as one of the most talented young players in world cricket. However, that is a tag that is starting to sit uncomfortably with him.

MORE TOP STORIES:

Just under two years since he made his England one-day international debut, Lancashire’s Buttler is desperate to take the next step and become a reliable match-winner.

“I don’t want to be someone who is talked about who could be a good player for England,” he said.

“It’s great to have potential and it’s great to have talent, but there comes a stage where you want to be someone that the media and commentators don’t talk like that. They talk about you being a performer for England.

“That’s a stage where you have to get to.”

Buttler points to newly-appointed India Test skipper Virat Kohli, who is two years his senior, as proof his time has come to become one of England’s go-to men.

Kohli has established himself as one of the stars of international cricket, even while being bestowed with arguably the toughest job in the game.

Even more significantly he has a record to be envied having already hit 21 ODI centuries in 150 games in the format.

While Buttler will only step out for his 50th ODI in the World Cup opener against Australia next Saturday, he boasts just one century so far.

That it was the fastest ever by an England player, from 61 balls at Lord’s last May, highlights the star quality that Buttler is desperate to unleash more often.

“Virat Kohli has played a lot more games, but he’s only 26. No-one talks about his potential because he performs at a stage which is the world’s best,” Buttler added.

“I think age is irrelevant. It’s about performance.

“No-one is the finished article, Virat Kohli is nowhere near the finished article, but he performs at a level that is world’s best and that is what everyone aspires to get to as fast as they can.”

Any comparisons between Buttler and Kohli’s progress should be tempered by the fact the Englishman has spent the majority of his international career buried further down the order as a ‘finisher’.

Where Kohli has been freed to enjoy the obligingly flat surfaces of the sub-continent in a powerful India top-order, Buttler has been restricted to a role that does not lend itself to consistent heavy scoring.