‘He’s not going to IPL…’: Ben Stokes being made England ODI captain slammed as ‘move of desperation’ by Stuart Broad

England’s poor performance in the Champions Trophy, and their horrifically poor show in the format going into the tournament, has led to speculation over whether they might choose to make Ben Stokes the ODI captain. Jos Buttler stepped down from the position after England’s final match of the tournament but former pacer Stuart Broad has said that appointing Stokes as his replacement would leave him “lost for words”.

“Going for Stokes would be a move of desperation. I would be lost for words if England appointed him,” wrote Broad in his column in DailyMail. “Firstly, there is the schedule. He’s not going to the Indian Premier League to try to prioritise the Test match team and get his physicality right for the big events on the horizon. How many overs has Stokes bowled successfully in the last three years while battling his knee injuries? Not many. And you’re going to add another eight to 10 overs in a 50-over format onto his workload?”

Broad is best known for his long partnership with James Anderson in Test cricket and took 604 wickets in 167 matches in the format. However, he also played 121 ODIs and took 178 wickets between 2006 and 2016 and said that playing an 50-over game took a bigger toll on him than a Test match. “The mathematics of that make no sense. As someone who played 121 one-day internationals I can honestly say I found the 50-over format more tiring than Test match cricket,” said Broad.

Stokes had reversed his retirement from ODI cricket to play the 2023 World Cup. He had kept his options in the months after the tournament and was considering playing in the Champions Trophy. However, his absence from the tournament was confirmed after he suffered a second hamstring tear in six months.

Stokes has struggled to maintain full fitness and has often had to ditch bowling in Test matches. The 33-year-old is currently in a race against time to be fully fit in time for the Ashes later this year, to the point that his participation in the five-match Test series against India is in doubt.