Ben Stokes, England’s Test captain, has reversed his decision to retire from 50-over cricket ahead of the team’s title defence in India in October, and has been named in the men’s ODI squad in the forthcoming series against New Zealand.
England men’s national selector Luke Wright said: “Any series against New Zealand is closely fought and will provide us with an ideal opportunity to test ourselves against one of the best teams in the world.
“The return of Ben Stokes only adds to that quality with his match-winning ability and leadership. I am certain that every fan will enjoy seeing him back in an England ODI shirt again.”
Harry Brook missed out on a place in the squad as the 2019 World Cup winning captain returned. Pacer Jofra Archer was also omitted following the recurrence of his injury.
England coach Matthew Mott recently revealed that he was eager to lure the Test team skipper out of retirement and was willing to play him as just a pure batter in ODIs.
Stokes retired from One Day Internationals in July 2022 and as recently as in the aftermath of the Ashes, had reiterated his intentions of staying retired from the 50-over format to be fit for the Test series against India in early 2024.
Stokes suffered a knee injury during his time in New Zealand back in February, causing him to miss most of the Indian Premier League season.
Harry Brook has been forced out of England’s squad for the World Cup this autumn by Ben Stokes’s decision to return to one-day international cricket, the 24-year-old Yorkshireman’s meteoric rise halted by what Luke Wright, the England men’s national selector, said was “as hard a decision as you’re ever going to get”. There is also no place for Jofra Archer, who will not recover from an elbow injury in time for the start of the tournament but will travel as a reserve.
England have to name a preliminary 18-man squad by 5 September, before whittling that down to a final 15 by 28 September. But the intention is for the 15 players selected for the four-game ODI series against New Zealand to also be the group that travels to India shortly afterwards, accompanied by three reserves. This means Brook, who since making his international debut in January 2022 has nailed down a place in the Test side and won the T20 World Cup, will make the cut only if someone else is ruled out by injury.
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“This is the squad we’re going to put forward,” Wright said. “It’s incredibly tough but in that middle order, with Stokes coming back as a batter, it does squeeze someone out. There’s no denying what a superstar Brooky is, and what a huge future he’s got with us going forward in all formats. That’s the incredibly tough decision we had to make. Unfortunately in a 15-man squad someone’s going to have to miss out, and on this occasion it’s been him.”
Nine of the 15 players who won the World Cup at home in 2019 will be among the group that sets out to defend the trophy, and just three members of this year’s squad are under 30 – one of whom, Reece Topley, is 29. But there is a place for Gus Atkinson, the 25-year-old Surrey seamer who has played only two 50‑over games in his senior career but is averaging 89.4mph for the Oval Invincibles in the Hundred and has hit a top speed of 95mph.
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