LONDON: England Test captain Ben Stokes said he would be willing to return to the white-ball setup under new coach Brendon McCullum if he was asked but added that there had been no conversations about him coming back into the limited-overs squads.

McCullum’s appointment as head coach across all formats came after a two-year period of having separate coaches for the white and red-ball teams and followed Matthew Mott’s departure as limited-overs coach in July.

The New Zealander will take charge of the limited-overs sides when England tour India in January.

Stokes has been a key part of the Test squad since McCullum took charge in May 2022 but has played sparingly in England white-ball sides.

He retired from One-day Internationals before returning for last year’s ODI World Cup and last played a T20 International in the World Cup final in November 2022.

“I’ve played a lot of white-ball cricket for England and I’m very happy and content with what I’ve achieved in that form of the game […],” Stokes told Sky Sports on Tuesday.

“If I get the call to come and play, then obviously it’s definitely going to be a yes. But I’m not going to be too disappointed if I don’t — it means that I can just sit back and watch everyone else go out and smack it.

“Me and Baz [McCullum] have not spoken about anything like that whatsoever.”

Published in Dawn, September 26th, 2024