Matthew Mott offers Ben Stokes to end retirement and play again

• Ben Stokes to come out of retirement and join England’s title defence at the 50-overs World Cup.
• Stokes was named Player of the Match in England’s 2019 World Cup final.
• He retired from one-day cricket last year due to a lack of time.

The door is open for test captain Ben Stokes to come out of retirement and join England’s title defence at the 50-overs World Cup in India later this year, according to white-ball coach Matthew Mott.

Stokes was named Player of the Match in England’s 2019 World Cup final victory over New Zealand at Lord’s, and he also led the team in scoring in the T20 World Cup final in Australia last year.

He retired from one-day cricket last year due to a lack of time, but Mott said he would be willing to discuss the situation if things changed before the World Cup in October-November.

“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,” Mott told reporters ahead of the three-match ODI series in South Africa beginning on Friday. “We respect that and when he’s ready to chat, we’ll do that.”

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Mott said he had discussed the issue with limited-overs captain Jos Buttler and director of England men’s cricket Rob Key and they had not set a cut-off date for Stokes to make up his mind. “… 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,” he added.

Ahead of the series against South Africa, Mott said fit-again speedster Jofra Archer was “frothing to play” after nearly two years on the sidelines. “Having watched him from a distance, I think he’s one of the most exciting things to have happened in cricket for the last decade,” Mott said.

“The best thing I can say is that we have a general plan of what it (Archer’s schedule) might look like. “We will work through it with him, see how his body is coping. I definitely think he is a high priority and he will be managed as well as possible.”

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