They are short of at least one captain, a host of in-form batters and fit seamers, and any real sense of identity and future. The one-day international side is declining faster than it is ageing and the Twenty20 group is bloated and uncertain.
With all this in mind, Rob Key faced the media at Lord’s on Thursday to outline a plan. Here’s what we learned.
Key confirmed Archer is on course to play Test cricket this summer and also said Dan Worrall will join that group of fast-bowling options.
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“We’ve got to make sure that we’re able to hit them with the sort of weapons that they’re hitting us, which we haven’t got at the moment,” Key explained.
“We’ve got our best spinner, Liam Dawson, there’s no question about that. You’ve got Tom Hartley as well. Dawson doesn’t have to develop, he’s definitely a runner going forward. But we’ve got to start building because that’s maybe only a short-term fix. You need something that’s going to sustain us for a long period of time.”
Stokes could become all-format captain
Key says Stokes is ‘one of the best captains I’ve ever seen’ (Photo: Getty)Another revelation was that Ben Stokes is a candidate for the white-ball candidacy, despite not playing international limited-overs cricket since November 2023. This was always likely to be the case given his pre-existing relationship with Brendon McCullum.
“We’re just going to try to find who is the best leader to take this team forward. Who can manage that? Who is actually going to drive this forward?
Key also said there was a possibility the ODI and T20 captaincy could be separated, alongside highlighting Harry Brook as an “outstanding” option – although he admitted Stokes “might bring out the best” in Brook.
“What I would say is that don’t underestimate how much we speak to these people,” Key explained.
England aspire to be all-format No 1
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Somewhere within all this was the admission that despite sitting fourth in the Test rankings, seventh in ODIs and third in T20Is, England’s aspirations have not been knocked.
“That’s the gold standard, right?” he said.
This perhaps says more about the potential dangers of England’s relentless positivity than it does about the idea itself.
Stokes’s coaching career fast-tracked
The Test captain is being fast-tracked through an elite coaching programme and has spent time working with Andrew Flintoff’s Lions squad in Abu Dhabi in recent weeks.
The aim is that as soon as his playing career ends, he will be prepared to take on a senior backroom role.
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