“If I get a call….”: Stokes open to white-ball cricket return under coach McCullum

London [UK], September 25 (ANI): England Test skipper Ben Stokes said that he is open to a return to white-ball cricket under the newly-appointed coach Brendon McCullum, his trusted leader in the long format of the game.

Stokes, who played crucial innings in England’s 50-over and 20-over World Cup triumphs in 2019 and 2022, retired from ODI cricket in 2022 due to burnout and an increasingly stressful international schedule, but made his return to the side ahead of the next year’s ICC Cricket World Cup in India. Stokes played as a specialist batter on his ODI return, scoring 539 runs in nine games at an average of 59.88, with two centuries and three fifties. During England’s defence of 50-over title in India, Stokes did score 304 runs in six matches with a century and two fifties, but could not avert the disastrous campaign his team experienced, scoring just three wins in nine games and, at one point, risk of losing even a direct qualification to the ICC Champions Trophy 2025.

The veteran all-rounder has not featured in white-ball cricket since his outing in India during WC2023, skipping his country’s T20 World Cup defence in June, in order to build-up his full fitness as knee issues hindered his abilities to bowl. Moreover, Test cricket had also taken a bigger place in Stokes’ priorities.

As he focuses on regaining full fitness ahead of away Tests against Pakistan from October 7 onwards following a hamstring injury during The Hundred, Stokes said that conversations about a white-ball comeback with McCullum have not happened yet. But with McCullum also coaching the white-ball sides from January 2025 with Champions Trophy in Pakistan just around the corner, the all-rounder would be more than happy to wear the Blue jersey yet again if he receives a call from McCullum.

“It is an amazing opportunity for the white-ball team to experience what Baz has brought to the Test team,” Stokes told Sky Sports during the third ODI at Chester-le-Street, as quoted by ESPNCricinfo.

“He has been an incredible coach who speaks with utter commitment, and it is nice to have all three teams now with the same messaging and the same philosophies towards playing cricket. If I get the call and [Baz] says, ‘do you want to come and play?’ Then obviously, it is definitely going to be a yes, but I am not going to be too disappointed if I do not, because I can just sit back and watch everyone else go out and smack it.”

“I have played a lot of white-ball cricket for England, and I am very happy with what I have achieved in that form of the game. But to be honest, we have not even spoken about anything like that whatsoever. I think he is just letting me concentrate on what I need to concentrate on, especially around the Test team,” he concluded.

Stokes expects himself to be fit for the Pakistan series after having missed the Tests against Sri Lanka. He said that he would be cautious about his bowling duties after spending time away from the game due to injury since August.

“I have got my six-and-a-half week scan tomorrow, so we will know more from that, but I am feeling really good,” Stokes said.

“It was a hamstring tear that just sneaked into my tendon, so that is why it has taken a week or two longer, but my rehab has gone really well, so hopefully tomorrow everything gets the all-clear, and we can start pushing it a bit more.

“There’s a lot more than just my hamstrings that I need to get back firing again, in terms of bowling, because you use everything. So I need to get that all right to make sure that I do not do any more damage to any other parts of my body,” he concluded.

Though England whitewashed by 3-0 in the last series they played against Pakistan in 2022, Stokes admits that the team is yet to know a lot about conditions in Pakistan.

“It is probably not until we get out there that we’ll have a real understanding of it. I know that Shan Masood [Pakistan’s captain] has been asking for quicker, more lively wickets for their fast bowlers. Obviously, last time we were there, they were slow, dry and spun a bit. So, we have got to go there with an open mind about what we are going to get,” he concluded.