Everyone wants Stokes back for the 2027 Ashes except Stokes

Ben Stokes has been retired for a month, and in the last week two of the most senior figures in the Ashes have spent their media time discussing when he might come back. The Australia coach floated it. England’s managing director declined to shut it down. The one person who has said anything definitive on the subject is Stokes, and he said it in June.

What was actually said

Andrew McDonald started it on Australian radio station SEN on Wednesday. “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,” he said, adding that he thinks Stokes has plenty of good cricket left. Australia tour England next summer, so McDonald has an obvious interest in a series that sells itself.

Rob Key was asked about it on Friday and gave the answer of a man who has learned not to make promises about Ben Stokes. Had Stokes indicated anything? “No, he hasn’t, but I wouldn’t be surprised. Anything’s possible with Ben.” Would it be welcome? “It would be a brilliant story if he does.” Key also made clear there is no rift, which nobody had seriously suggested there was.

Neither man claimed to know anything. Both were happy to keep the door visible.

The words that matter came in June

Stokes told his players before day four at Trent Bridge that he was finished at the end of the third Test against New Zealand. He was direct about why. He had “burned myself out” after England’s 4-1 Ashes defeat in Australia and had no “more fight left in me”. Within minutes of the announcement he was asked about 2027 and answered it: “I’m done. I know it’s the Ashes but I’ll probably be watching it in a hospitality box somewhere.”

That is about as clear as a cricketer gets. The reason nobody believes him is that Stokes has done this before, retiring from one-day cricket in 2022 and reappearing for the 2023 World Cup, so his retirements come with an asterisk attached by default. Fair enough. But a man who quit because his body and his appetite had both gone is not the same case as a man who quit to protect his body for Test cricket.

The talk exists because England have a hole, not because a comeback is close

Look at what England have done since. Brendon McCullum was removed from the red-ball job on 12 July after seven defeats in the previous nine Tests. Joe Root, who is 35 and who gave up the captaincy in 2022 because it was grinding him down, has been handed it back. Stephen Fleming has been appointed head coach but does not start until December, so Marcus Trescothick takes the Pakistan series from 19 August as a caretaker. That is a leadership group assembled in a fortnight out of whoever was available.

And none of it addresses the actual vacancy. Stokes batted at No.6 and bowled genuine overs, which meant England could pick an extra bowler or an extra batter and still balance the side. There is nobody in English cricket who does that job right now. Every selection England make between now and the Ashes will be shaped by his absence, which is precisely why his name keeps coming up in press conferences that are supposed to be about other people.

What a return would actually need

I would not rule it out entirely, because ruling anything out with Stokes is how you end up looking silly. He is still playing franchise and county cricket, so the pathway exists in a way it would not for someone who had gone completely. If he spends the winter bowling ten-over spells for Durham and enjoying it, the conversation changes on its own.

What bothers me is the direction of the pressure. A retired 35-year-old is being asked to solve a problem created by a governing body that let its Test side drift into seven defeats in nine. Root and Fleming have a Pakistan series, a South Africa tour and a day-night Test at the MCG to get through before anyone needs to think about next July. If England spend that time gazing at the exit Stokes walked through, they will arrive at the Ashes with the same squad and one more year of hoping.

Take him at his word. Build the team without him. If he turns up anyway, that is a bonus, not a plan.

More views from our cricket desk