England will wait until the very last moment for Ben Stokes to make a decision on his 50 over World Cup involvement as they hope to tempt him out of retirement for one last hurrah.
Stokes called time on his 50-over career last summer to focus on his Test ambitions as England captain and the lucrative T20 circuit where he is in huge demand around the world.
Something had to give and it was the format he did so much in to land England’s first 50-over World Cup triumph in 2019. But white ball coach Matthew Mott has not given up on the hope of seeing Stokes return to the fold in time for the next World Cup in India at the end of the year.
“Three weeks ago we had a catch up and I jokingly said ‘how are you going? Are you ready to make your decision?” said Mott.
“At the moment he’s non-committal. He is preparing for a test series and will just see how things pan out.
“Obviously, he's also got the IPL and we will keep an open mind. The door is always open for a player of that quality but we are also very aware that his main focus is red ball cricket as the captain.
“I think we leave the door open. I've had some good discussions with Jos Buttler and Rob Key on this and what we've worked out, as you will see on this tour, is that players are playing a lot of franchise cricket and coming in and out at different times.
“We need to keep a really flexible, open mind to players and when we sit down to pick that 15 for the World Cup, we want to pick the best players possible.”
There is no doubt that Stokes remains one of the best players in the game and brings a level of big match experience that no one else can match. But whether he can be tempted to put his body through the rigours required when he has an Ashes and an IPL on his plate this year is another matter.
