ECB managing director Rob Key told the media that it would be stupid to not consider Ben Stokes among the possible candidates for England’s next white-ball captain.
Who will replace Buttler?
After losing 0-3 in the ODIs in India, England lost all three games in the Champions Trophy and were, for the first time since 2006, eliminated at the group stage. Jos Buttler resigned as England white-ball captain in the aftermath of England’s dismal performance.
When asked about his replacement by the reporters at Lord’s, Key said: “You’re just looking for the best person, someone who you think can take this forward. We’re not gonna 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 – Harry [Brook, for example]. There’s plenty of people who’ve got plenty of options to do that.
“We’re now gonna spend the time trying to work out exactly who that person is. It might be the case that you have one for 50-over cricket, one for T20 cricket. Because when you start looking at it, I believe that Test cricket and 50-over cricket are probably closer, and T20 is the outlier.
“We look at India and the way they play T20 cricket. They’ve got all these young players coming through, but it’s their Test players, they’re making the difference in 50-over cricket. Same with us, our best two batters in that were Joe Root and Ben Duckett. You know, Ben Duckett should be one of the best all-format openers in the world at the moment.”
Can it be Stokes?
Key was then asked whether Stokes could be England’s next white-ball captain. The captain of the Test side, Stokes has not played ODIs since the 2023 World Cup, or T20Is since the 2022 T20 World Cup.
“Nothing’s off the table really,” said Key. “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?’ So, very much, 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.”
Since “nothing’s off the table,” Key is also open to “potentially a captain who’s not been in the squad recently” – with the likes of Sam Billings and James Vince recently out forward as potential candidates.
“You’re just going to try and find, who is the best leader to take this team forward? Who can manage that? Who is actually going to drive it? Leadership is everything. How can we drive this forward? Does there have to be a captain this summer? I just want the best person, to be honest.
“However long that takes, that’s what we’ll do. If we work out who the best person is and that comes out pretty soon, we’ll do it soon. If it takes a bit longer, it takes a bit longer. So I can’t tell you. I don’t put a time limit on these things, because you just want to make sure you get the decision right.”
