Ben Stokes, reportedly, making a comeback from ODI retirement to play in the World Cup later this year in India has been the news of the cricket town this week.
“Jos Buttler will probably lead the way on that communication, but Ben’s pretty straight with all of us. We will see if he’s keen,” England head coach in white-ball cricket Matthew Mott would tell the Daily Mail.
It was last summer when Stokes would announce his retirement from the 50-over format, stating that it was no longer ‘sustainable’ to play all three formats.
India all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin believes the onus is now on the ODI and T20I skipper Jos Buttler to convince the England Test captain to return for the marquee tournament later this year.
“Will Stokes come out of retirement? The main reason why he retired from ODIs is workload management. He said he can’t keep playing all the time, he has issues with his knee. That was the whole point of retiring from one format. But England know how crucial he will be for them in the World Cup,” Ashwin would state in his YouTube video.
“They will try their best to convince Ben Stokes to come out of retirement and play the ODI World Cup and it seems that responsibility has been given to Jos Buttler. It seems Buttler’s duty is to watch Ben Stokes, according to coach Matthew Mott. So Buttler is keeping an eye on Ben Stokes. Now it’s Buttler’s job to make Stokes available for the World Cup. And Buttler is not a man of many words. He hardly speaks. So my guess is that he will go to Ben Stokes and say, ‘Dude please join us. It will be really nice if you come out of retirement.’ Buttler won’t be outspoken. He will try his best,” Ashwin added.
