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Former Australian captain Tim Paine has blasted England star Ben Stokes’ long-expected decision to reverse his ODI retirement call just months out from the 2023 World Cup.
Stokes, England’s Test captain the hero of their 2019 World Cup triumph, surprisingly chose to call it quits on the 50-over format in July last year, citing the physical and mental demands of playing all three formats.
However, it has been rumoured for months that the star all-rounder would make a comeback for the prestige tournament, and so it has proved.
Speaking on SEN Tassie, Paine suggested the turnaround was a selfish move from Stokes, given he has claimed the spot of a teammate who has been available for England throughout the last year – young gun Harry Brook has been dumped from the team’s 15-man squad to face New Zealand in September in preparation for the tournament, and seems likely to remain on the sidelines for the World Cup itself.
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“It was a bit of, ‘Me, me, me’, there isn’t it?” Paine remarked.
“It was, ‘I’ll pick and I’ll choose where I want to play and when I want to play’, and, ‘I’ll play in the big tournaments’.
“The guys who played for 12 months? ‘Sorry, thanks. But can you go and sit on the bench because I want to play now’.”
Ben Stokes (Photo by Alex Davidson/Getty Images)
Further complicating matters is the fact that Stokes, due to a chronic knee injury exacerbated during the Ashes series, will not be bowling at the World Cup, which begins in India in early October.
Paine, who represented Australia in 35 Tests and 35 ODIs across an injury-interrupted career, isn’t sure Stokes will provide sufficiently more with the bat than Brook, a specialist batter, to justify his inclusion ahead of the 23-year old prodigy.
“He’s not bowling… Harry Brook or Ben Stokes, as a bat?” Paine wondered.
“It would be very close, very, very close.”
However, Paine still believes England, the reigning ODI and T20 World Cup champions having claimed the latter tournament in Australia late last year, deserve to be among the favourites to defend their title alongside hosts India – though he believes Australia themselves are a chance ‘if they can get hot’.
With 465 runs at 66.42 in the last World Cup in 2019, including a priceless unbeaten 84 in the famous final that saw England claim victory via a Super Over and controversial boundary countback, Stokes’ exploits in limited-overs cricket are legendary.
England will begin the 2023 edition with the first match of the tournament on October 5, a rematch of the 2019 decider against New Zealand.
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