FORMER King’s College pupil Jos Buttler says he was relieved to be dropped from the England Test team for the third Test against Pakistan last month.

The wicketkeeper-batsman from Somerset had endured a torrid 2015 in the longer format, struggling for runs in the home Ashes series and carrying that scratchy form into the first two Tests in the United Arab Emirates.

He lost his place for the final Test but then returned for the one-dayers, where he hit a brilliant 116 from 52 balls in the final match as England won the series 3-1.

The 25-year-old then captained his country to victory in the second Twenty20 match in Dubai but admitted that seemed a long way away when he was struggling to keep his place in the Test set-up.

"You get to a place where you are thinking 'today I have to get runs or can you just drop me and get me out of this'," he told the Daily Telegraph.

"It was a relief to get dropped which is sad in a way because you never want to miss a game. But I was not performing and mentally I got to a stage where I was not concentrating and did not want to be there.

"I was not enjoying walking out there and feeling like I didn't know where the next run was coming from. I would also worry that I would miss a nick when keeping because I would be thinking about batting too much.

"Keeping wicket is the worst place to be when out of form. You can't hide at fine leg where you might touch the ball once every 10 overs. Behind the wicket you are involved every ball.

"You are never going to go to a coach and say 'look I think you need to drop me' because you have that pride thinking you can turn it around but it was definitely a relief to be taken out of that game and then suddenly the world changed.

"When I was watching the Sharjah Test I wondered why I had been so worked up."

Meanwhile, England Test captain Alastair Cook has given his blessing for fast bowler Stuart Broad to take part in next year's World Twenty20.

Broad has not featured in the shortest format since the 2014 World Twenty20 where England failed to advance to the knockout stages under his captaincy.

And while Cook admits he would like to keep Broad fresh for Test cricket, he will not stand in the selectors' way if they want to take the 29-year-old to India in the New Year.

"As a Test captain you want your best players playing just that format in a very selfish way," he told national newspapers. "But that's not the right thing. Broady has been fantastic for English cricket for a very long time.

"Physically he has looked in fantastic nick recently and he hasn't played much one-day cricket. He would go with my blessing.

"If you want to go to win global tournaments and you need your best players.

"That's an interesting selection for the selectors, Andrew Strauss and Eoin Morgan. That will be a decision made down the line and you can't look too far ahead."