Jos Buttler’s opportunity to leave a lasting legacy may rest on persuading Ben Stokes to reverse his retirement from the 50-over format
Next year, Jos Buttler has the opportunity to create a dynasty and defend the 50-over World Cup, catapulting his England team alongside the great Australians of the 2000s as the best of all time.
But first, he has to persuade his mate Ben Stokes to reverse his decision to retire from the format. The T20 Word Cup final in Melbourne reaffirmed how England still need Stokes, the cool executioner of a run chase in the tightest of corners.
Stokes retired from 50-over cricket in the summer to protect his body, taking a swipe at the mad schedule in the process, which sees England granted only four days to celebrate this win before starting a pointless one-day series against Australia in Adelaide on Thursday. When he made his decision, it was that time between 50-over World Cups when the format feels irrelevant and stale, the next tournament a speck in the distance. But by this time next year, when the World Cup is underway, the Ashes will be over and with proper workload management, Stokes can still be at his peak.
White-ball cricket between now and September is pretty irrelevant for England. They will take an experimental team to South Africa in January to finish off the Covid shortened tour of 2020, and similar to Bangladesh in March, when the big names will be resting again. Then the Ashes takes precedence but is over by August 1. Stokes can rest from all white-ball cricket until then, take a month off (he seems in no mood to play in the Hundred) and then have a conversation with Buttler and Rob Key, the England team director. Does he fancy one more rodeo?