T20 World Cup: England captain Harry Brook has thrown his weight behind floundering opener Jos Buttler, admitting that his veteran player is in a rut, but expressing confidence in his ability to bounce back as England head into the T20 World Cup semi-finals.

Buttler's tournament has been marked by a sharp plunge in form, with scores of 3, 3, 7, 2, and 0 in his last five innings, yielding a meagre 15 runs. The England opener's struggles continued against New Zealand, where he was dismissed for a duck by Lockie Ferguson.

Brook described Buttler as "probably the best white-ball player to have ever played the game" and emphasised that he has a lot of fire under his belt, wanting to prove himself.

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“There's been a lot said about Jos. I said the other day that he's played 150 games for England in T20Is, and people probably need to take a little step back from that. He's probably the best white-ball player to have ever played the game," Brook said at the post-match presentation.

"He's in a little bit of a rut now, but I think that's an exciting thing for everybody in the world to know what he could produce in the next couple of games,” the England captain said.

“He's obviously got a lot of fire in the belly, and he wants to go out there and show everybody what he's made of. Look, he averages 34 striking at 145 in 150 games. He's a phenomenal player, and I have no doubts he'll go out and do well,” he added.

Brook indicated that Rehan Ahmed's remarkable debut against New Zealand might not secure him a spot in the semi-finals, unless India pitches prove extremely spin-friendly.

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"We've seen what Reh can do in the nets and he's gone out there and played beautifully there, and taken the game away from them. There's conversations to be had but we said from the start of the comp - and we said it to the group - we're going to select on conditions, and we thought that today was the perfect opportunity to bring him in, and he did an amazing job,” Brook said.