Ben Stokes in contention to replace Jos Buttler as England’s white-ball captain

LONDON: Test captain and enterprising all-rounder Ben Stokes has emerged as one of the candidates to replace wicketkeeper batter Jos Buttler as England’s white-ball captain after the ICC Men’s Champions Trophy 2025 debacle.

Buttler, who led England to the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup glory in 2022, lost three major tournaments afterwards as the captain.

His team’s performance during the ongoing eight-team tournament was particularly poor as they failed to win a single match out of three and finished last in Group B.

The former World Cup winners had been knocked out before their last group-stage match, which led to Buttler stepping down from the position.

Vice-captain and emerging batter Harry Brook was the frontrunner to take up the role, while Stokes, who is retired from ODIs was not in consideration until England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) managing director for men’s cricket Rob Key said it would be ‘stupid’ to rule the all-rounder out.

“I think nothing’s off the table really,” Key told reporters at Lord’s.

“Ben Stokes is one of the best captains I’ve ever seen. It would be stupid not to look at him. It’s just the knock-on effect of what that means.”

Stokes, who is nursing a hamstring injury, has not played a T20I since the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 final, while his last ODI appearance came during the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023, for which he had come out of retirement.

Rob Key also acknowledged that England’s white-ball performances had declined sharply after the 2019 World Cup glory under the captaincy of Eoin Morgan.

“We were very poor in the Champions Trophy,” said Key. “But the truth is, we haven’t been particularly good in white-ball cricket, probably since the last era when (retired captain) Eoin Morgan did it.”