If we want to do well in India and beat the Aussies down under he needs pensioning off. Not good enough with the bat as a specialist Batsman and gets injured every time he runs fast. Been a decent Captain but he's taking up three places. A strike bowler, batsman and all rounder. Totally unbalancing the side. Get rid, bring back Smith, Atkinson as all rounder Pope as Captain.
He cannot handle being the all rounder he wants to be. But then he's not a good enough batter to just do that. If he wasn't the captain he'd be in the running to make way when Smith is back.
Why did Stokes bowl 30 odd overs in the last match ? The series was won and he’d been out for a long while with a hamstring injury ! I think our next test is against Zimbabwe at end of May ( 4 days !! ) so some experimentation may be done pending 5 matches against India and ultimately the Ashes. Crawley, Pope, Woakes and Stokes will all be under scrutiny for various reasons and we may even see Wood and Archer for the odd game although it’s becoming clear that both are not capable of staying fit for a few tests in a row particularly if they’re both active in the various limited over internationals over the next few months.
One of the world’s best all rounders. Captain. Talisman and someone every nation would want in there team. Guilty of trying too hard at times but I’ll take that. the mind boggles sometimes.
If you class his inspirational ability as an all round ability then he’s up there with the best ever but his batting and bowling averages are comparable even to Woakes ! I’m not suggesting Stokes should be dropped but he needs to consider whether he’s going to be able to bowl much longer. Should he concentrate on his batting and move up the order ? A batter of his capability shouldn’t be coming in at 7 ( in my opinion )
When you're England cricket captain the ability to ha dle the pressure as well as absorb it for your team mates is definitely an ability worth mention.