Australia coach Andrew McDonald believes Ben Stokes still has plenty to offer in Test cricket. He hopes England’s next Test coach can convince the all rounder to return from international retirement for one more Ashes series.
Stokes announced his retirement during the third Test against New Zealand at Trent Bridge in late June. He made the decision public on the fourth day of the match.
His retirement came shortly after he returned to action following the fallout from a London nightclub incident involving teammate Gus Atkinson.
England later parted ways with Test coach Brendon McCullum. Reports in British media say former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming is expected to take charge.
McDonald said a Stokes comeback would be a perfect story ahead of next year’s Ashes series in England.
“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,” McDonald told Australian radio station SEN.
“If you’re looking at promoting that series, that’s probably the angle that you would want, that he comes out of retirement.”
McDonald believes Stokes still has much more to give.
“To me, he’s still got a lot of good cricket left in him,” he said.
“It’ll be a fascinating watch. I think that whoever the new head coach that comes in potentially has a conversation with him.”
Stokes is still playing domestic cricket for Durham and is only 35 years old.
Australia could field several players older than him in next month’s Test against Bangladesh. Nathan Lyon is 38. Steve Smith and Scott Boland are both 37. Mitchell Starc is 36. Josh Hazlewood is also 35.
McDonald said only Stokes knows the real reason behind his retirement.
“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 said.
“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.”
