'Door open for Ben Stokes to make a return to ODI's': England head coach Matthew Mott

England’s Test captain Ben Stokes shocked the cricketing world in July 2022 by announcing his retirement from the ODI format. He took the major decision at the age of just 31 years old, in order to manage his world load across formats. Ahead of England vs South Africa, three-match ODI series, England’s white-ball coach Matthew Mott has now revealed that the star allrounder can still return to the format. 

Stokes played a key role for the English 50-over squad in their campaign to win the ICC Men’s ODI World Cup in 2019. He played an unbeaten knock and helped his team to defeat New Zealand in the final to earn glory at the marquee ODI tournament. While announcing his decision to retire from the format, Stokes notably didn’t rule out a U-turn from retirement.

"Door is always open for a player of that quality"

Meanwhile, speaking ahead of the first ODI against South Africa, England coach Mott said, “The door is always open for a player of that quality but we are also very aware that his main focus is red-ball cricket as the captain. We respect that and when he's ready to chat, we'll do that”. It is pertinent to mention that Stokes was adjudged as the man of the match during the dramatic super-over win in the final to lift the 2019 ODI World Cup.

Back in July last year, Stokes denied the chances of returning for the ODI World Cup 2023 by saying that it would be unfair for the player selected in his place. However, as reported by BBC, ahead of the Test series against Pakistan in November, the cricketer said, “Who knows? At the moment, being out here, my focus is solely on this series. Going to a World Cup is an amazing thing to do, to represent your country. But at the moment I'm not even thinking about that."

Will Ben Stokes make a comeback to play the ICC Men's ODI World Cup 2023?

On being asked whether the national team would give a cut-off date to Stokes to decide on a World Cup return, Mott said, “I've had some good discussions with Jos [Buttler, captain] and Rob Key [director of England men's cricket] on this. What we've worked out, as you will see on this tour, is that players are playing a lot of franchise cricket, coming in and out at different times, so we need to keep a really flexible, open mind to players and when we sit down to pick that 15 for the World Cup, we want to pick the best players possible."

The ICC ODI World Cup 2023 is scheduled to be played in India in October and November. Interestingly, England will not have played a Test match for more than two months, ahead of the prestigious quadrennial event. England will play their next Test series in early 2024 when they tour India for a five-match Test series.