England men’s cricket managing director Robert Key has suggested Ben Stokes as a potential successor to Jos Buttler following their early exit from the 2025 Champions Trophy. However, he emphasized that the decision would not be rushed, and the selection process would take time.
Buttler stepped down after England’s loss to Afghanistan, which sealed their group-stage elimination from the eight-team tournament. With the team failing to secure a single win and Buttler’s own form under scrutiny, his position became untenable.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Key praised Stokes as one of the best captains he has seen but also mentioned Liam Livingstone, Harry Brook, and Phil Salt as possible candidates. As quoted by Sky Sports, he elaborated:
“I think nothing’s off the table. You look at every single option and you think, ‘what is the best thing to do?’ Ben Stokes is one of the best captains I’ve ever seen, so it’d be stupid not to look at him. It’s just the knock-on effect of what that means. You’re just looking for the best person, really, someone who you think can take this forward.”
” We’re not going to rush this decision as well. We’ll take a bit of time. We’ve had a plan in place where we’ve looked at lots of different people, so we’ve seen Phil Salt, Liam Livingstone, Harry Brook [in the role], there’s plenty of options.”
“We haven’t performed well in white-ball cricket”- Robert Key
Robert Key believes England’s current squad is far from the team that clinched the 50-over World Cup under Eoin Morgan. The 45-year-old particularly pointed out their batting struggles, stating that the quality has sharply declined. He added:
“We were very poor. The truth is, we haven’t been particularly good in white-ball cricket, probably since the last era when Eoin Morgan did it, and that’s for lots of different reasons.”
”We look at every single thing, whether it’s variety in the attack, all the things that you read about. We think about where’s our left-arm spinner coming from? Is it [Liam] Dawson?”
“Or do we stick to our strength—relying on pace and packing the team with batting to chase any total? We could have changed selections, but if batting is your strength and it falters, it’s a major issue. Over the past few years, our batting has sharply declined.”
Get the latest cricket news here, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter and Instagram for more such updates.
