Any team that has a Ben Stokes is a better team: Ollie Pope on the England Test captain playing in ODI World Cup | Cricket News
With less than two months left in the 2023 ODI World Cup, England Cricket have been subject of a good news with reports emerging of Test captain Ben Stokes deciding to come back from ODI retirement to play in the marquee tournament in India later this year.
“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,” England head coach in white-ball cricket Matthew Mott would tell the Daily Mail.
Commenting on the speculations, England batter Ollie Pope would tell Sky Sports, “Ben Stokes is someone who loves playing for England. 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.”
It was in July last year that Stokes had announced his retirement from 50-over cricket, stating that playing all three formats had become ‘unsustainable’ and that he wished to continue to play the T20 and Test format.
“I guess he’s happy with how he went in the Ashes. I know he didn’t bowl as many overs as he has in the past. But I’m sure he’ll be talking with Jos Buttler and Matthew Mott and talking about managing his workload. I think with the way the schedule is going there’s no Test cricket until the start of January so it does give him a good chance to recover. Hopefully he’s got a lot more years of playing. It’s a World Cup, another opportunity to write hory,” Pope said.
Stokes was one of the key performers for England in the 2019 World Cup, their first triumph in the tournament following a nail biting final that saw Stokes lead the way with the bat.