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Buttler wins support as coach praises 'passionate' Broad

England coach Chris Silverwood discusses the form of Jos Buttler and Joe Denly as well as the comments of Stuart Broad

England have backed out-of-form wicketkeeper batsman Jos Buttler to return to his best after former Test quick Darren Gough said the gloveman "has two Test matches to save his career".

Buttler, who was vice-captain for the opening Test against the West Indies in the absence of regular skipper Joe Root, posted scores of 35 and 9 in Southampton and has now scored one half-century in his past 21 Test innings.

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The right-hander has averaged 21 with the bat in 11 Tests since the start of the Ashes last year and with highly regarded Surrey gloveman Ben Foakes also in their squad, England have an obvious and capable replacement should Buttler's run of low scores continue.

But coach Chris Silverwood said Buttler will be given "the best chance to succeed", a strong show of support ahead of the start of the second Test on Thursday.

"I'm not going to go down that road yet of putting Jos under pressure, because I don't think it's going to help him," Silverwood said. "So, first and foremost, we want to give Jos the best opportunity to succeed.

"But you're right, we have got a very, very good gloveman in Ben Foakes out there, which we're lucky to have.

"(Jos) looked brilliant coming into this game, in practice and everything. He looked very good in the first innings. He just needs to go and make those big scores now, doesn't he? Which he knows as well.

"From our point of view, it's just making sure that he feels confident in the environment he's in. We'll give him the best chance to succeed really. The rest of it is, he has a good day out, gets some runs, hopefully the rest will be history – he'll go on from there."

Image Id: 7472CC167EE245FF8EDD38298679E654 Image Caption: Buttler has averaged 21 since the start of the Ashes last year // Getty

Speaking on Sky Sports, 58-Test veteran Gough said Buttler should be given the rest of the series to prove himself but added that time was running out.

"Buttler has got two Test matches to save his career, for me," Gough said.

"He's a terrific talent, lots of kids look up to him and he has all the shots. But, in Test cricket, you can't just keep getting out and that's what he keeps doing."

England are certain to make at least one change for the second Test at Old Trafford, with Joe Denly the most likely player to be dropped for the return of Root following the birth of his second child.

Denly's scores of 18 and 29 in the opening Test saw his career average drop below 30 from 15 Tests, and with 22-year-old Zak Crawley impressing in Southampton with a top score of 76, the 34-year-old Denly is under pressure to hold his spot.

"We're all desperate to see Joe do really well," Silverwood said.

"We can see he's trying hard, he's training hard. He's a great bloke hence why we all went to see him do well, but obviously he's under pressure a little bit, yeah.

"Zak is improving constantly. He certainly showed maturity and the innings he played was very good. We have some young players in that side that seem to have good heads on their shoulders, and he's one of them.

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"We'd have all loved to have seen him go on and get up to three figures but what we did was very good and helped us get into the position that we did."

The other selection question mark surrounds the make-up of England's pace attack, with Stuart Broad itching to return after his controversial omission from the first Test.

Rotation of fast bowlers was always likely this summer given England will play six Tests in the space of seven weeks and Silverwood said the recovery time of his quicks would be a key pointer to selection in Manchester.

He also praised Broad for his passionate opposition to his axing in Southampton, where the veteran said he'd been "frustrated, angry (and) gutted because it's a hard decision to understand".

"I think Stuart handled himself very well during that interview, to be honest," Silverwood said.

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"What I did love about it, and subsequently the conversations I've had with him, is that passion. That drive is still there and to see that in someone who's done as much in the game as he has, I find very exciting to be honest.

"We have one or two stiff bodies this morning as you can imagine … but they all seem to have come through well. We will know more after training tomorrow. We will put them through their paces and see where we are at.

"Nothing is a given in this team as we've seen, and people will be playing for their spots. Everything will be considered."

England have lost the opening Test in eight of their past 10 Test series and need to win at Old Trafford to keep the battle for the Wisden Trophy alive.