Jos Buttler admits he feared the sack when Matthew Mott lost his job - but is determined to improve England's fortunes after being given another chance as captain

Returning captain Jos Buttler is determined to lead England's next generation with a smile on his face following four months of injury angst and fears that he would lose his job.

Buttler, 34, has not played since England crashed out of the Twenty20 World Cup semi-finals here in the Caribbean in late June, having been dogged by a persistent calf injury he picked up running during a family break in Jersey.

It was also during this period that Australian Matthew Mott was sacked as coach following a white-ball review by Rob Key, the England men's director of cricket. Naturally, Buttler considered he might suffer the same fate.

'I thought it was a possibility, absolutely. There was the T20 World Cup, lots of people looking back at the 50-over World Cup in India , which was a big disappointment. I'm sure Rob Key did a real in-depth look at everything to do with the white-ball set-up,' he said.

'But I had some good conversations with Keysy and I said I didn't want to be captain because I'm the only person to do it, I want to be doing it because I'm the right person to do it.

'He believed I could lead the team forward and captain into the future and take the team into a good place.'

England are not in a good place right now in limited-overs formats, having lost 12 of 20 T20 internationals against major nations in addition to 13 of 20 in one-dayers.

However, Key has gambled on reinvigorating the environment by putting Brendon McCullum in charge of all England teams. McCullum's first reflection on trying to build the same kind of captain-coach relationship he has with Ben Stokes was to say Buttler needed to cheer up.

'Yeah, I saw him say how miserable I am. So obviously that's something I need to work on,' laughed Buttler.

'But I'm really excited about him taking over everything. You can see the effect that he's had on the Test team, and the whole narrative around English cricket.

'He was always someone I'd have loved to play in a team with. So now there's an amazing opportunity to have his influence on the team and on myself.'

Buttler has kept wicket in 106 of his previous 108 T20 internationals, but will relinquish the gloves for the five-match series starting against West Indies at Kensington Oval on Saturday following McCullum's advice. In his own playing days, he found the switch to mid-off beneficial for his captaincy.

Phil Salt will therefore remain behind the stumps over the next 10 days while Jamie Smith has been lined up for the role in next February's Champions Trophy.

Despite paring back his triple role, however, Buttler insists he has plenty more to give after signing a new two-year ECB central contract.

'I actually had some chats with Baz about this stage of a captaincy career and how it can actually be the most rewarding time,' Buttler continued.

'He spoke about letting people flourish and seeing them go to the top of the mountain being some of the happiest times.

'However long I play for, and hopefully it's a long time, just to be present and help develop the next era of white-ball cricket is a goal.

'Not try to protect anything or sort of hang on. I just want this to be an incredibly fulfilling time of my life. When you get an injury like this one it makes you realise how desperately you want to get back and do the stuff that you really enjoy doing.'

While Buttler bolsters England's attacking artillery, replacing incoming Test keeper Jordan Cox, West Indies are boosted by the return of global stars Nicholas Pooran and Andre Russell. Alzarri Joseph serves a two-match ban for his on-field histrionics with one-day captain Shai Hope in the series-deciding victory on Wednesday.