England's white-ball team is set to enter a new era as they have finalized Harry Brook as the T20I captain, while Ben Stokes is the likely candidate to be named as the ODI captain. The ODI and the T20I captaincy spots are vacant since Jos Buttler decided to relinquish captaincy after England's Champions Trophy campaign came to an abject end in the group stage of the showpiece event.
According to a report in the Telegraph, the England Cricket Board (ECB) has zeroed in on the candidates. For the unversed, Brook was the incumbent vice-captain to Buttler during the Champions Trophy event. ECB has earmarked the star batter to lead England for a long time after he first impressed with his leadership at the age-group level. However, the ECB is only keen to give Brook leadership in T20Is as they look to prepare for the global event, which is set to take place in 2026 in India and Sri Lanka.
The report also claimed that Brook as well as Stokes are keen to take ODI leadership. ECB is a bit confused about finalizing candidates for the longer format of the game. Interestingly, it is also the format where England has looked most clueless in recent times.
Will Ben Stokes be named ODI captain? Or will Harry Brook get the nod?
It is to be noted that Stokes had quit playing the ODI format after the 2019 World Cup, only to make a U-turn before the start of the ODI World Cup 2023. However, in between those years, the all-rounder has played very few ODIs. Also, another factor to worry about with Southpaw is his long-standing back issue and hamstring, which has seen him skip Test matches also.
The ECB certainly would not want to burden Stokes by giving him ODI captaincy as well, considering England plays a lot of Test matches compared to other teams. As far as Brook is concerned, the right-hand batter is only 26 years of age and is considered England's next big thing. Brook is still finding his feet in the white-ball formats, and the ECB would be cautious to not give the additional burden of captaincy to the star batter for both ODIs and T20Is.
Also Read: Mitchell Marsh’s Ashes Hopes Alive as Selectors Keep Faith in All-Rounder
Whoever takes England's white-ball captaincy has a massive task in hand to revive the team, just like former leader Eoin Morgan did in 2016.
