'Door open' for Stokes to return at World Cup
Ben Stokes
|| CF DESK ||
Stokes to miss early county games in fitness battle
31 Mar 25
Ben Stokes has the option to resume his one-day international playing career and take part in England's title defense at the 50-over World Cup later this year in India, according to white-ball coach Matthew Mott.
Stokes led England in scoring in the T20 World Cup final in Australia last year and was named Player of the Match when they defeated New Zealand at Lord's in the 2019 World Cup final.
He gave up one-day cricket last year, citing his workload, but Mott stated that if circumstances changed before the World Cup in October or November, he would be happy to talk about it.
"The door is always open for a player of that quality but we are also very aware that his main focus is red-ball cricket as the captain. We respect that and when he's ready to chat, we'll do that." Mott said.
The limited-overs captain Jos Buttler and the director of England men's cricket Rob Key, according to Mott, did not set a deadline for Stokes to decide.
"... we need to keep a really flexible, open mind to players and when we sit down to pick that 15 for the World Cup, we want to pick the best players possible," he added.
