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Rob Key has said he would be “stupid” not to consider Ben Stokes taking on the captaincy of at least one of England’s white-ball teams as he and Brendon McCullum attempt to right the ship after the recent Champions Trophy blowout.
Speaking at Lord’s on Thursday, less than a week since the last of England’s three group stage defeats in Pakistan, the director of men’s cricket held his hands up to “a lot of errors”. There was also an admission the players “do not help themselves” when it comes to shaking off the perception of a team that does not care about winning.
While stressing he is not feeling the pinch as regards his own role, Key and his head coach, McCullum, face a pivotal decision over the best candidate to replace Jos Buttler as white-ball captain. With 11 Tests, 27 white-ball matches and a T20 World Cup in the next 12 months, picking a multi-format player comes with inherent issues.
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Much like McCullum last week, Key has said “nothing is off the table” which, as well as asking Harry Brook to step up and risk overburdening a player yet to crack all three formats, could even see Stokes in the frame. The 34-year-old is on track to be fit for the season after hamstring surgery but this risks his Ashes project being compromised.
“Ben Stokes is one of the best captains I have ever seen,” said Key. “So it would be stupid not to look at him. It’s just the knock-on effect of what that means.
“He is an unbelievably good tactician, which we’ve seen in Test cricket, but he’s also a leader of men. He is someone who gets the best out of people. He’s someone that, when the pressure is really on, he is able to sort of throw a blanket around the players and actually say: ‘No, no, this is the way forward. Keep going with it.’
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“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 where you start [thinking]: ‘What if it goes wrong?’ You’ve also got to think: ‘What if it goes right?’ And they are the decisions that I have to make.”
