Rob Key – England would be ‘stupid’ not to consider Ben Stokes as ODI captain

Stokes is currently stepping up his recovery in Abu Dhabi with an England Lions training group and is expected to be fully fit to start the summer with Durham. Key was also out in the UAE, and sees no reason why the 33-year-old cannot do as he has done with the Test side and re-energise an ODI team who have lost their way.

“I think nothing’s off the table really,” Key said. “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?

“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.

“He’s an unbelievably good tactician, which we’ve seen in Test cricket, but he’s a leader of men. He’s someone who gets the best out of people. He’s someone that, when the pressure is really on, he’s able to throw a blanket around the players and actually say, ‘no, no, this is the way forward. Keep going with it’.

“They’re the qualities that you need in leadership. Ben’s, as we know, an outstanding player, an outstanding leader. It’s more about, what would that then mean to him? What would that then mean to his workload?

“We don’t want to risk other things as well. But there’s always a way in England, I think, where you start looking at, ‘what if it goes wrong?’ You’ve also got to think, ‘what if it goes right?’. They’re the decisions that I have to make.”

There is no doubt McCullum would be open to having Stokes on board. He stated last week that he would be open to a different captain for each of the three international formats because of their contrasting strategies. Key, however, sees a synergy between Tests and ODIs that would allow Stokes to succeed with the latter.

“When you start looking at it, I believe that Test cricket and 50-over cricket are probably closer than T20s, which is the outlier now. So then that makes different things.

“We look at India and the way they play T20 cricket, and they’ve got all these young players coming through, but it’s their Test players that are making the difference in 50-over cricket.”

The issue, as Stokes has previously outlined himself, is the schedule. This year sees England face India and Australia in legacy-defining Test series as far as Stokes’ captaincy and the Bazball project are concerned. Should the ODI job be assumed, three-match series against West Indies (May into June), South Africa, Ireland (both in September) and New Zealand (ahead of the Ashes) will be shoe-horned into his itinerary.

Brook will have a similar issue, albeit one he already has to contend with as a multi-format batter. Key has no reservations about Brook assuming a leadership role given how he captained against Australia at the end of last summer in Buttler’s absence. And with Stokes on hand to guide him – as well as halve his limited-overs captaincy duties – Key sees no reason why the Yorkshire batter cannot step up another level.

“I think Harry Brook would be an outstanding captain actually. I was cautious about Ben Stokes doing it and having too much, and look how that’s gone.

“I think he (Stokes) might bring out the best in Harry Brook. Being able to go out there and feel like the extra responsibility sometimes ,for people, is the best thing that can happen for them. Sometimes it’s not. They’re the decisions you have to work out.”