Ashes 2023: England considering using captain Ben Stokes as an opener against Australia

England’s think-tank has reportedly been mulling the idea of promoting captain Ben Stokes to the opener’s slot for the Ashes, according to a media report in a British newspaper.
The report comes amid concerns over the England captain’s fitness, which might restrict his chances of bowling in this summer’s Test matches between the traditional rivals. It is learnt that Stokes has been waylaid a left knee injury. The Ashes gets underway on June 16.
The report in The Times pointed out that Stokes has bowled only a single over in this season’s Indian Premier League. That too was in Chennai Super Kings’ opening match of IPL 2023 on March 31. Stokes has not played at all since April 3. Chennai head coach Stephen Fleming had said the all-rounder was still finding bowling “a bit of a challenge”.
The report also said that if Stokes was unavailable to bowl, the team would have to draft in a fourth fast bowler. This would mean they would have to create a spot for Stokes at the top of the order at the expense of Zak Crawley, who has averaged 18.33 at home since the start of 2021 and failed to reach a half century in his last eight Test knocks.
It is believed that should Stokes be moved up, Warwickshire’s Chris Woakes would be accommodated in the side as the fourth seamer.
Meanwhile, Australian cricket legend Allan Border has called the move to use Stokes as an opener a “huge gamble”.
“Stokes is such a good player, I don’t know whether I’d be throwing him into that situation,” Border told Fox Cricket. “Why expose him to the new ball when you don’t have to? He can win games from anywhere I suppose, but we saw in (2019) how dangerous he is down the order and with the tail. I wouldn’t be fiddling with Stokes’ position in the batting line up … he can bat with the tail, he can up the ante. He can hold up an end if he needs to, put the block on. He’s a quality player that guy. You’re right in the firing line against the new ball opening the batting, and if he’s not used to doing it, I reckon that would be a real gamble.”