England Men's ODI Captaincy: Is Stokes the Answer?

This is not the first time that England have exited an ICC white-ball tournament and decided to have a long hard look in the mirror. And who can blame them? Such were England's poor performances across their three games at the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy that some have said they were fortunate to come away with only three defeats.

Indeed, they never looked like finishing in the top two of Group B, let alone reaching Sunday's final in Dubai.

Captain Jos Buttler announced that he was standing down as white ball skipper ahead of the final match with South Africa, a game which England were thrashed in by seven wickets, and now attention has turned to who will take over the job.

Considering England won the 2019 Cricket World Cup and the 2022 T20 World Cup, one would think that there would be a host of potential candidates for the role, but the truth is a little different and Test captain Ben Stokes is being touted as a possible option.

We look at whether Stokes would be the answer for England as white-ball captain below.

Ben Stokes - England's Test captain

The 33 year old has been in charge of the England Test team from the start of the 2022 home season and he has brought a positivity and energy to the role which few have previously attempted.

Working closely with head coach Brendan McCullum, who was appointed to the Test role at the same time that Stokes became captain and took over as white-ball coach at the start of 2025, they have brought a single-minded approach to Test cricket which certainly initially paid dividends.

England's Test record before and during Stokes' captaincy

Can His Body Take It?

Ben Stokes is one of the most wholehearted cricketers in the world and his commitment can never be brought into question. However, he has never been too far away from the treatment room across the last 12 months and any sign of a grimace on his face often sends England fans into spirals of worry.

He missed the Champions Trophy after tearing his hamstring during the Test series in December and subsequently requiring surgery. This came just over a year after he had undergone a knee operation to address a long standing issue.

And after playing two IPL games in 2023, there was no Ben Stokes in the competition in 2024, nor will he be there for IPL 2025 after he skipped the auction to look after his body prior to the hamstring problem.

Is his batting in decline?

The stats in Test cricket certainly seem to show this and at 33 years of age, Stokes is no spring chicken. Burdening him with an additional captaincy may not be England's smartest move ahead of the Ashes in Australia, which has long been seen as the ultimate test of the Stokes-McCullum regime, and which begins in November. 

If not Stokes then who?

Another name to have been linked with the ODI and T20I captaincy is Harry Brook who hit 317 against Pakistan in 2024 and in doing so became the first England player to make a score of 300+ since Graham Gooch in 1990.

But Brook only averages 34.00 from 26 ODI innings and 28.50 from 37 T20Is with many England fans hoping that he can be left alone to purely focus on his batting across all-formats.

It may be that England decide to look at a player who has not been in the squad over recent times with names such as Sam Curran and James Vince also mooted for the role.

Whoever takes on the job, has a mighty big task to get England firing again after miserable 50-over campaigns at the 2023 Cricket World Cup and now most recently in the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy.

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