Melbourne, July 29 (IANS) Australia head coach Andrew McDonald believes attempts could be made to coax Ben Stokes out of retirement for next year’s Ashes, insisting that the former skipper still has ‘a lot of good cricket left in him.’
Stokes retired from international cricket following England’s 2-1 defeat to New Zealand Test career. Later, head coach Brendon McCullum departed as England’s Test coach and that brought the end of the ‘Bazball’ era.
“I think the fairytale would be that he comes back out of retirement and takes on one more Ashes and builds a lot of hype on the way in. If you’re looking at promoting that series, that’s probably the angle that you would want, that he comes out of retirement.
“To me, he’s still got a lot of good cricket left in him. It’ll be a fascinating watch. I think that whoever the new head coach that comes in potentially has a conversation with him,” McDonald told SEN Radio.
Stokes had previously unretired from ODI cricket for playing the 2023 World Cup and famously convinced former off-spin bowling all-rounder Moeen Ali to return to Test duty for the 2023 Ashes. While Stokes has maintained his ‘I’m done’ stance following his final Test appearance, McDonald suggested the door might not be entirely closed.
“We don’t know why Ben left, I don’t think there’s been anything on the record around the definitive reason as to why. He may have just called it a day on Test cricket and that’s it, so there might be a full stop there.
“Or there might be an opportunity for that new head coach to potentially twist his arm and bring him back in. But if it ends now, he’s had a wonderful career in terms of what he’s brought to the game, his impact in certain innings and moments in time. It will age pretty well for him to look back on,” he added.
England’s first Test assignment after the exits of Stokes and McCullum will be a three-game home series against Pakistan, before the 2027 Ashes takes centrestage. Trent Bridge in Nottingham will host the opening match of the five-game series from June 18, followed by further games at Lord’s, Edgbaston, The Rose Bowl and The Oval.
Addressing England’s ongoing coaching search following Andy Flower’s decision to decline the role due to franchise cricket commitments, McDonald noted how international setups are competing with league cricket for top coaching talent.
“Like any of these decisions that you make, your next one’s the most important, so with an Ashes coming up, we’ll be keenly looking at potentially who’s the coach, what that means, do they change their style of play? We’ll get a look at that (in) the Pakistan series.
“I think Marcus Trecothick may be the interim for the short term before they put someone in full-time. Whether they change their style, we’ll be looking at that from afar. It’s interesting that Andy Flower was the person that they were looking at going towards, and then he’s declined because of his franchise commitments.
“Maybe coaches are very similar to players in that franchise-versus-country sort of narrative, and whether you can attract the best coaches at the right time into international cricket,” he elaborated.
Turning his attention to Australia’s upcoming Test assignment against Bangladesh, McDonald backed out-of-form batter Marnus Labuschagne to rediscover his run-scoring form while arguing that traditional benchmark metrics like a 50-plus average are becoming harder to maintain in modern Test cricket.
“Australian teams in the past have played at a high tempo… but there is a faster pace to Test cricket these days. So how we’re judging our players and how teams are operating is always interesting, so the benchmarking from the past, I think, is … not irrelevant, but we’re probably moved past that.”
When asked directly what Australia needed from Labuschagne, whose career average has dropped to 44.7, McDonald offered a blunt, single-word response before elaborating on the batter’s mindset.
“Runs. Last summer, (his) first Test match on the back of the Shield work that he did was very promising. He probably had a little bit of a lull through the middle of that series and then ended in Sydney, where you’d expect him to be, at as a high-level batter. It’s all still there.
“He’s working incredibly hard on his game, and I know that’s an easy thing to say that someone’s working hard, and people want to see results, and Marnus wants to see those results, we want to see those results, (but) he’s done a deep dive into his batting.
“I think the criticism sometimes, and I hope Marnus doesn’t mind me saying this because we have these conversations, is in that search for the answer. Sometimes he’s shifting away from what makes him really good, that sort of proactive batting. He does focus on his technique a lot, but settling that down, trusting that over a period of time, and just going out there and doing it (is the key).”
McDonald also defended selecting an experienced, veteran squad for the upcoming series rather than blooding younger talent, adding that the selection panel is firmly committed to picking the best available team for every international fixture.
“The debate’s always going to be about what opportunities that you do expose for people and we’ve always been on the record around every Test match, we pick the best team, and we have had a long lay-off. You want to reward it. Is it an age profile that people will challenge and question? There’s no doubt about that.
“But these players are still at their best, we believe, and hence why they’re being selected. So (it would) be very difficult to go to someone and say, ‘Yeah, you’ve been in our best Test squad for … X amount of time and you’re performing at a high level’, which this team has, and say, ‘Okay, by the way, we’re just going to (float) a couple of youngsters in this series.’ It doesn’t really sit well with us as a selection panel, and we want to pick that best test 11 each time,” he concluded.
–IANS
nr/bc
