Three Years After Announcing Retirement, 33-Year-Old Star Likely To Replace Jos Buttler As England White-Ball Captain
Photo : AP
After England's torrid performance in the Champions Trophy 2025, where they were knocked out of the group stage without a single win, their white-ball captain, Jos Buttler announced that he was stepping down from the role. The search for the ideal replacement to Buttler is on, with the T20 World Cup 2026 and the ODI World Cup 2027 on the horizon. Many have predicted the likes of Joe Root and Harry Brook as the likely replacements. However, it looks like head coach Brendon McCullum might go in for a familiar face as the leader.
In an interaction with ESPN Cricinfo, England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) director Rob Key has hinted that Ben Stokes might be the next England white-ball captain, in addition to being the Test captain of the side. Calling Stokes as one of the best captains he has ever seen and a good tactician, Key said that it would be 'stupid' not to consider him as the next skipper in line for white-ball cricket.
"I think nothing's off the table really. You look at every single option and you think, right, what is the best thing to do? How is that going to impact on other things? Ben Stokes is one of the best captains I've ever seen. So it would be stupid not to look at him. It's just the knock-on effect of what that means," Key said.
"He's an unbelievably good tactician, which we've seen in Test cricket, but he's a leader of men. He's someone who gets the best out of people. He's someone that, when the pressure is really on, he's able to throw a blanket around the players and actually say, 'no, no, this is the way forward. Keep going with it," he added.
Lack Of White-Ball Action For Ben Stokes
Ben Stokes announced his retirement from ODI cricket back in 2022 due to being burned out from playing too much international cricket. However, he came back from retirement in the 2023 World Cup. Since then, he has not played any ODIs for England.
Stokes has also not played any T20I cricket since 2022. He ruled himself out from the T20 World Cup 2024 to focus more on Test cricket.
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