England Test captain Ben Stokes is in contention to become the country’s next limited-overs skipper, replacing Jos Buttler, as ECB director Rob Key feels it would be “stupid” not to consider the talismanic all-rounder, who has proven himself to be an “unbelievably good tactician”. Buttler resigned as England’s white-ball captain midway into the Champions Trophy where the team failed to log a single win. This was just a few days after the side was hammered by India in a limited-overs away rubber. The 33-year-old Stokes missed the Champions Trophy due to a hamstring injury. He has not played ODIs since the 2023 World Cup, where he reversed his initial decision to retire from the format.

“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, director of men’s cricket in the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), was quoted as saying by ‘ESPNCricinfo’.

“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’,” Key added in high praise of the impactful but injury-prone pace bowling all-rounder.

Stokes is currently in Abu Dhabi recovering with an England Lions training group and is expected to be fully fit for the summer assignments, which include a five-Test series against India in June-July-August.

Key, who was also in the UAE, believes Stokes has the ability to rejuvenate the ODI team, just as he did with the Test side.

“They’re the qualities that you need in leadership. Ben’s, as we know, an outstanding player, an outstanding leader. It’s more about, what would that then mean to him? What would that then mean to his workload?” he wondered.

Key acknowledged that handing Stokes the ODI leadership would come with its own risks.

“But there’s always a way in England, I think, where you start looking at, ‘what if it goes wrong?’ You’ve also got to think, ‘what if it goes right?’. They’re the decisions that I have to make.” Stokes’ rapport with coach Brendon McCullum, now overseeing England’s entire setup, may add weight to the idea.

But McCullum hasn’t had a particularly fruitful run since taking charge of the white-ball set up. England have lost 10 of their 11 matches since the former New Zealand swashbuckler took charge, which is in sharp contrast to the Test transformation he triggered.

England have won 22 out of their 35 Tests since 2022.

Citing the Team India model, where the ODI and Test core is made up of almost the same set of players while the T20 side features youngsters, Key said Tests and ODIs share a strategic similarity that would work for Stokes.

“When you start looking at it, I believe that Test cricket and 50-over cricket are probably closer than T20s, which is the outlier now. So then that makes different things.

“We look at India and the way they play T20 cricket, and they’ve got all these young players coming through, but it”s their Test players that are making the difference in 50-over cricket.” England will play ODI series against West Indies (May into June), South Africa, Ireland (both in September) and New Zealand (ahead of the Ashes) this year.

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