Ben Stokes’ Moeen Ali-inspired ‘Lol’ tweet sends England Cricket into jubilation ahead of ODI World Cup | Cricket News
One word, three syllables. That’s all it was and that’s all that may have changed the complexion of England Cricket just ahead of their first ODI World Cup campaign as defending champions.
‘Lol’. It was what Moeen Ali had written as his response to England’s Test captain asking him, ‘Ashes?’. An exchange that saw the all-rounder make a U-turn from his Test cricket retirement call from two years back to feature in the Ashes squad and play a pivotal role in drawing the series 2-2.
On Wednesday, in his own poetic way, Ben Stokes used to the three letter word with all the talks around his own return to play ODIs for England – having retired from the 50-over format last year. This, as England named him in the 15-player provisional squad for the upcoming event in India.
Lol
— Ben Stokes (@benstokes38) August 16, 2023
Why the chatter around Stokes’ return?
In a recent interview with The Daily Mail, England’s T20 and ODI head coach, Matthew Mott would state, “Jos Buttler will probably lead the way on that communication, but Ben’s pretty straight with all of us. We will see if he’s keen.”
Stokes was a key member of the England side that won the 2019 World Cup at home, scoring 465 runs in the tournament including his 84* in the final against New Zealand at Lord’s.
Our two 15-player squads for the series have been revealed 👀
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) August 16, 2023
In July 2022 though, England’s newly appointed Test skipper would state that it was no longer ‘sustainable’ for him to play in all three formats. “As hard as a decision as this was to come to, it’s not as hard dealing with the fact I can’t give my teammates 100 per cent of myself in this format anymore,” he’d write.
Do England need Stokes in ODIs?
If that incredible display in the last edition wasn’t proof enough, Stokes’ heroics for England in the last T20 World Cup final. Coming to bat after England lost two early wickets in the powerplay against Pakan, Stokes scored another half century in an ICC final as England became the first team to hold both, the ODI and T20 World Cup titles at the same time.
Even his recent exploits in the longest format of the game, in sync with the Bazball ideology have proved the southpaw is still a tailor-made middle order batter for ODIs – despite him not having bowled in recent times owing to his knee issues. In the recently concluded Ashes series, the England skipper was the fourth on scoring charts with 405 runs off nine outings.
🤔 https://t.co/0QttWp5ObA
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) August 16, 2023
Of all the three formats, Stokes best averages across ODIs (39) and has 2924 runs at a strike rate of 95.1 across 90 innings.
On Stokes’ value to the England side, Ollie Pope would tell Sky Sports, “He’s a player that any England team is lucky to have in its side. Obviously he has his knee (issues), it’s no secret that he has been trying to manage that. It’s great for him that he feels he’s in a place where he can go and have a big contribution in a tournament like the World Cup. Any team that has a Ben Stokes is a better team. If these rumours are true, I think he’s going to have an amazing tournament.”
Even if it is Stokes’ final act in ODIs as the Ashes was for Moeen in Tests, England stand a good chance of laughing out loud at the end of it.
England’s provisional ODI squad: Jos Buttler (captain), Moeen Ali, Gus Atkinson, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Curran, Liam Livingstone, Dawid Malan, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, Reece Topley, David Willey, Mark Wood, Chris Woakes.
