LONDON: The door is open for test captain Ben Stokes to end his retirement from one-day internationals and join England’s title defence at the 50-overs World Cup in India later this year, white-ball coach Matthew Mott said.
Stokes was named Player of the Match in the 2019 World Cup final when England beat New Zealand at Lord’s and was their top-scorer in the final of the T20 World Cup in Australia last year.
He decided to quit one-day cricket last year citing his workload but Mott said he would be happy to discuss the situation if things changed ahead of the World Cup in October-November. “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,” Mott told reporters ahead of the three-match ODI series in South Africa beginning on Friday.
“We respect that and when he’s ready to chat, we’ll do that.” Mott said he had discussed the issue with limited-overs captain Jos Buttler and director of England men’s cricket Rob Key and they had not set a cut-off date for Stokes to make up his mind. “… 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.
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Ahead of the series against South Africa, Mott said fit-again speedster Jofra Archer was “frothing to play” after nearly two years on the sidelines.
“Having watched him from a distance, I think he’s one of the most exciting things to have happened in cricket for the last decade,” Mott said. “The best thing I can say is that we have a general plan of what it (Archer’s schedule) might look like. “We will work through it with him, see how his body is coping. I definitely think he is a high priority and he will be managed as well as possible.”
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