Former England batter Mark Butcher has questioned Ben Stokes ' place in the side following their shock defeat to Ireland at the T20 World Cup.
Stokes was named in England's World Cup squad despite not playing a T20I since March 2021 and he has struggled with the bat since returning to the side. In five T20Is this year, Stokes has scored just 41 runs at an average of 10.25 and a strike rate of 97.61.
And while Butcher believes Dawid Malan is also "under pressure" after scores of 18 off 30 and 35 off 37, he feels Stokes is the one "under the pump". Speaking on the Wisden Cricket World Cup Daily podcast, Butcher said: "His [Malan's] innings was a bad one and he will feel under pressure.
"But I still don't think he's the one under the pump. People will say Stokes is capable of doing something magnificent at some point and his fielding and bowling will play into it.
"But then England have got lots of other batters in that line-up who are also capable of doing it who are all batting one position lower than they would do otherwise." Despite his struggles with the bat, Stokes has played an important role with the ball.
Having been tasked with opening the bowling alongside Chris Woakes in both World Cup games so far, he has picked up three wickets at an average of 9.00 and an economy rate of 4.26 - the lowest of all the England bowlers.
"Topley's injury threw a spanner in the works of how to balance batting depth with having another guy take the new ball for them, which has maybe made Stokes position a little more solid in that team," Butcher added. "But I still think that England have finished five runs short on DLS, five wickets down and still had Sam Curran, Chris Woakes in the hutch and with Liam Livingstone only just at the crease.
"You can have too much batting. And I know that sounds a bit daft, but you can sort of, leave yourself with resources left on the bench or have batters leaving it to the next guy with no-one taking the mettle itself.
"More than anything else, though, the curious thing was how static they were and how un-England like the batting performance was. You're not calling for mad recklessness as the ball was moving around, it's just a case that they just stood there and allowed those guys to hit a four-day length without getting any pushback."
