Michael Vaughan Says England Still Need Ben Stokes as Test Captain

Michael Vaughan has made a strong case for Ben Stokes to keep the England Test captaincy, even as the player faces fallout from a team curfew breach.

The background

Stokes was left out of England’s squad for the second Test against New Zealand at The Oval. It followed an incident after the first Test at Lord’s, where he and teammate Gus Atkinson were reportedly involved in a nightclub-related altercation that broke the team curfew. Disciplinary action followed.

Vaughan’s argument

Speaking on BBC Test Match Special, Vaughan said the team needs Stokes as its leader and ranked his tactical awareness among the best he has seen in a captain. He said he would not want to be the one to tell English supporters that Stokes was no longer captain.

He suggested the ECB would find it hard to remove Stokes from leadership given his impact since taking charge in 2022 alongside head coach Brendon McCullum.

Vaughan was also sceptical that Stokes could carry on simply as a senior player. If the ECB decided he could not return as a leader, he said, the only captain Stokes could play under was Joe Root, and he did not see Stokes as someone who would just walk into the dressing room as an ordinary player.

Root had captained England in 65 Tests before Stokes succeeded him in 2022, a handover that began the McCullum era.