‘All-rounder Ben Stokes should be England Test captain’, say former skippers

By AFP

LONDON: Former England captains Michael Vaughan and Mike Atherton say talismanic all-rounder Ben Stokes should fill the vacuum left after Joe Root resigned as Test skipper. Stokes — presently nursing a knee injury — can take the England job with an easy conscience as he had said he would turn it down if his good friend Root was sacked.

Root, though, walked of his own accord announcing his resignation on Friday. It followed a dire past year of results reaching its nadir with a 4-0 thrashing by Australia in the Ashes series and then a 1-0 loss to the West Indies.

Root, appointed as Alastair Cook’s successor in 2017, holds the record for the most matches (64) and most wins (27) as England skipper, but he also has the unwanted record for most defeats (26). Vaughan — who skippered England in 51 Tests and unlike Root won an Ashes series — told the BBC Stokes is the natural choice.

Veteran fast bowler Stuart Broad has also been mentioned as a potential captain but his place in the side is seen as being less secure — he was controversially omitted from the West Indies tour. “I don’t see anyone else who could take the position and be guaranteed of their place in the side. In Ben Stokes you have clearly got someone who has got a smart cricket brain, he’s going to give it everything, he is certainly going to have the respect of the players around him,” said Vaughan referring to Stokes.

‘So few candidates’

Vaughan, though, added Stokes will require help from other experienced players in the team.

“Stokes is everything in a person and a player that you would want. But he will need a lot of support around him because when you have got that all-rounder tag and they’ve got that persona that they think they can do everything. You need to have someone say ‘listen Ben, just concentrate on what you’re really good at’ and that’s out on the field, making decisions and trying to just give us your best performance,” said 47-year-old Vaughan.

Atherton — who captained England 54 times — said 30-year-old Stokes could be a stop gap skipper. “That Root stepped down of his own accord makes it easier now for Ben Stokes, the only viable candidate, to take over. Loyalty is everything to Stokes and he would not have wanted to take over had he felt that Root had been pushed aside. Stokes should be given the job, but it does not have to be for the long term. A short, sharp shock is required,” wrote Atherton in The Times.

Former England Test bowler and now BBC cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew agreed with Atherton regarding it not needing to be a long term appointment. However, he took issue with Stokes being a natural fit for the captaincy.

“There are so few candidates that it rules out any kind of long-term appointment. Someone like Ben Stokes could be one if he is fit enough, but I do not know if it is good for Stokes or for English cricket if he was saddled with the captaincy. You look back at the big characters that have captained England like Ian Botham, Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff — they have all failed as captains. We all want Stokes to go out there and express himself,” Agnew told the BBC.