Ben Stokes has not played white-ball cricket for a long time. He last played an ODI for England a year ago. This time, he can be seen as the new ODI captain of England.
England have crashed out of the ongoing Champions Trophy after losing to Afghanistan. Many have criticised Jos Buttler’s leadership after losing to the comparatively weak Afghans. Buttler has stepped down as captain in the face of criticism.
Ben Stokes could be seen as the next captain after Buttler. England’s director of cricket Rob Kee told reporters at Lord’s on Thursday, “All possible options will be considered. You have to look at each option and think, ‘Okay, what would be better? How would that affect other things?’ Ben Stokes is one of the best captains I’ve ever seen. So it would be foolish not to consider him.”
Stokes has not played an ODI since the 2023 World Cup. After contributing to the team’s title win by scoring a fifty in the final of the 2022 T20 World Cup, he has not been seen for the country again in this edition either.
Meanwhile, apart from Stokes, there are several others in the list of possible captains. Among them are Harry Brook, Phil Salt, Liam Livingstone. A few days ago, McCullum said, ‘We have some good options, some great leaders have developed in us.’
“Jos (Buttler)’s leadership is there too. He worked to develop leaders within the team. It’s not that he’s a hothead, there are a lot of young cricketers in the team who have a great sense of cricket and he (Buttler) has inspired them to develop and learn as leaders. Whoever we choose, we have to make sure that we can be right next to him and improve his performance,” he added.
