England’s managing director of men’s cricket, Rob Key, has stated that it would be foolish to overlook Ben Stokes as a potential replacement for the white-ball skipper. Ben Stokes could be one of the candidates to replace Jos Buttler as England’s limited-overs captain, with Rob Key stating it would be “stupid” not to consider the Test skipper as an option to rejuvenate a struggling white-ball set-up.
As the 2019 ODI World Champions lost every match, Jos Buttler accepted responsibility for England’s dismal Champions Trophy performance and stepped down as captain, bringing about a change of leadership for the team. The move, one of many Key is considering as men’s managing director following Buttler’s resignation after a dire Champions Trophy campaign, would see Ben Stokes become ODI captain. In that scenario, the T20I job would likely go to current vice-captain Harry Brook.
Ben Stokes stint as English white ball player
Ben Stokes has not played ODI cricket since the 2023 World Cup, a tournament that required him to U-turn on his decision to retire from 50-over cricket, during his first summer as Test captain in 2022. Ben Stokes had kept his options open for a potential return for the Champions Trophy, before that decision was taken out of his hands after a second hamstring tear in six months sustained during third Test against New Zealand at the end of last year.
Ben Stokes retired from ODIs before returning for last year’s ODI World Cup and last played a T20 in England’s victorious World Cup final in November 2022.
That Ben Stokes has a strong pre-existing relationship with Brendon McCullum, now in charge of England across all-formats, lends extra credence to this plan. McCullum has overseen 10 defeats out of 11 since taking over the white-ball set-up at the start of the year – a stark contrast to his work overturning their red-ball fortunes in cahoots with Stokes. England have won 22 out of their 35 Tests since the pair were brought together by Rob Key at the start of the 2022 season.
Ben Stokes last played an ODI for England during the World Cup 2023. He is currently preparing for the Test summer after undergoing surgery. It was under the all-rounder that the infamous “Bazball’ system was introduced in the Test team. During the 2023 World Cup, Stokes made his final appearance for England in an ODI. Following surgery, he is currently getting ready for the Test summer. The “Bazball” strategy was implemented in the Test team under the all-rounder.
There is no doubt McCullum would be open to having Stokes on board. He stated last week that he would be open to a different captain for each of the three international formats because of their contrasting strategies. Robert Key, however, sees a synergy between Tests and ODIs that would allow Stokes to succeed with the latter.
Ben Stokes is currently stepping up his recovery in Abu Dhabi with an England Lions training group and is expected to be fully fit to start the summer with Durham. Robert Key was also out in the UAE, and sees no reason why the 33-year-old cannot do as he has done with the Test side and re-energise an ODI team who have lost their way.
Robert Key’s massive statement on Ben Stokes as Jos Buttler’s successor after England’s 2025 Champions Trophy failure
England’s men’s cricket team’s managing director Robert Key has hinted at Ben Stokes as Jos Buttler’s successor following their group-stage exit in Champions Trophy 2025. However, Key has also said that they will not rush into any decision and take some time before finalizing the candidate.
Jos Buttler stepped down following England’s defeat against Afghanistan, with the national team getting knocked out from the eight-team tournament. With the Englishmen ending their campaign without a win and Buttler’s own form also coming under scrutiny, the keeper-batter’s position became untenable.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Key said Stokes is one of the best captains he has seen. However, he also floated the names of Liam Livingstone, Harry Brook and Phil Salt. He elaborated, as quoted by Sky Sports:
“I think nothing’s off the table. You look at every single option and you think, ‘what is the best thing to do?’ Ben Stokes is one of the best captains I’ve ever seen, so it’d be stupid not to look at him. It’s just the knock-on effect of what that means. You’re just looking for the best person, really, someone who you think can take this forward.
” We’re not going to rush this decision as well. We’ll take a bit of time. We’ve had a plan in place where we’ve looked at lots of different people, so we’ve seen Phil Salt, Liam Livingstone, Harry Brook [in the role], there’s plenty of options.”
Brook, who served as the vice-captain, is amongst the frontrunners to succeed, with age also on his side. The Yorkshire did a promising job in Buttler’s absence during the ODI series against Australia at home last year. However, Brook also had a forgettable Champions Trophy with the bat, aggregating only 47 runs.
Key feels England’s current side is hardly anywhere near the team that won the 50-overs World Cup under Eoin Morgan. The 45-year-old especially highlighted their batting woes, claiming how the quality has fallen off a cliff, adding:
“We were very poor. The truth is, we haven’t been particularly good in white-ball cricket, probably since the last era when Eoin Morgan did it, and that’s for lots of different reasons. We look at every single thing, whether it’s variety in the attack, all the things that you read about. We think about where’s our left-arm spinner coming from? Is it [Liam] Dawson?”
“Or are we going to go with just out-and-out pace to try and do what we think is our strength: pack the team full of batting, chase down anything and get over-par scores with the bat? We could have changed the selection, yes, but the fact is that if you’re not batting well and batting is your strength, that becomes a massive issue. When you start looking at it, over the last couple of years, the batting in particular has fallen off a cliff.”
England’s next 50-overs assignment is against West Indies at home in May-June and the England cricket team might look for transition in captainship role for England.