Ben Stokes has not completely ruled out a return to England colours to help defend the 50-over World Cup in India - just don’t ask him about it now.
That was the mistake managing director of England men’s cricket Rob Key made when he tried to broach the subject with Stokes in Abu Dhabi with his mind totally focused on the upcoming Test tour to Pakistan.
The Test skipper simply refused to entertain the subject having just delivered a T20 World Cup into the ECB trophy cabinet to go with the 50-over version he did most to secure back in 2019.
Since then though Stokes has been through the physical and mental wringer and decided he simply could not perform to the best of his ability if he continued to play all formats, which is why just weeks before the T20 tournament Down Under he announced his retirement from the 50-over format.
The huge demands on all format players are simply too great to be able to play consistently across them all for England, and when you add in the understandable desire to take advantage of the huge sums of money available in franchise tournaments such as the IPL, it becomes too much.
Something has to give, and with Stokes keen to re-enter the IPL auction after missing out last year, it was one day bilateral cricket that had to make way. But with white-ball coach Matthew Mott keen to have Stokes parachuted into the squad late next year ahead of the tournament in India, there may be a way back for the all rounder, if things align for him and white ball captain Jos Buttler makes a timely request.
Stokes didn't play much T20 cricket at all in the run up to the World Cup and indeed missed the previous edition in the UAE in 2021, but it didn't stop him from having a huge say in the destination of the trophy with two match-winning innings including in the final against Pakistan.
“Keysy pulled me to the side in the UAE and as soon as he said '50-over World Cup' I just walked away,” said Stokes. "When it comes to the World Cup next year who knows? At the moment, being out here, my focus is solely on this series.
“But it's one of those things. Who knows how I might feel towards a World Cup at the time. Going to a World Cup is an amazing thing to do, to represent your country. But at the moment I'm not even thinking about that.”
