England head coach Matthew Mott hopeful of Ben Stokes reversing ODI retirement
B
en Stokes' reversal of his ODI retirement in order to compete in the 2023 World Cup in India is something that England head coach Matthew Mott is hoping for.
Earlier this year, Stokes announced his retirement from 50-over cricket citing the difficulties of coping with a demanding schedule.
Stokes scored a crucial 52 unbeaten runs in England's T20 final run-chase against Pakistan in Melbourne, solidifying his reputation as one of the greatest "clutch" players in international history. Earlier in the 2019 World Cup, he also played a match-winning knock of 92 unbeaten runs (84 plus eight more in the Super Over) against New Zealand at Lord's in 2019.
Mott said that he had not yet explored the idea of Stokes coming out of his ODI retirement. Mott took over as England's white-ball coach at the beginning of the summer following a record-breaking tenure as the coach of the Australian women. Mott supported Stokes, saying he should "do what's right for English cricket."
"When he spoke to me about his ODI retirement one of the first things I said was that I'd back any decision he made. But I said to him he didn't necessarily have to retire - he could just not play 50-overs for a while. I did say you could always unretire. That's his decision. It's going to be a World Cup year and we don't play much T20 cricket for a while but it will be a decision that's up to him," ESPNcricinfo quoted Mott as saying.
"The more we can get out of him is great. He's doing an amazing job with the Test captaincy but he is a huge cog in the wheel when he comes back to white-ball," he added.
Additionally, he is the captain of England's Test squad which has improved its own image, winning six of seven notable games at home in 2022.
Since England won't be playing many T20Is in the coming months due to the World Cup being less than 12 months away, Mott is hoping that this will encourage Stokes to switch back to ODIs.
✔️ England head coach Matthew Mott hopeful of Ben Stokes reversing ODI retirement
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