England are on the hunt for a new white-ball captain with Jos Buttler quitting in the wake of the group-stage exit at the Champions Trophy.
Buttler lost 22 of his 34 One-Day Internationals as permanent skipper since succeeding Eoin Morgan in 2022, with the lowest ebb the dismal 50-over World Cup title defence two years ago when England lost six of their first seven games and were eliminated early.
Here we look at the contenders to replace Buttler, from the likely to the unlikely to the downright fanciful…
Harry Brook
Middle-order batter Brook is the outstanding candidate to take over as one of the few players seemingly guaranteed a spot in England’s 50-over and 20-over teams.
His importance to the side was underlined by coach Brendon McCullum naming him as Buttler’s white-ball vice-captain this winter and he led the ODI unit against Australia last summer, following on from skippering Northern Superchargers in The Hundred.
The only issue for Brook may be the congested nature of the international calendar.
As a Test regular, too, England could look to prioritise him for impending assignments against India at home and Australia away, meaning he may not be available for every limited-overs fixture.
Phil Salt or Liam Livingstone
Salt (pictured above) and Livingstone are the only other players in the current squad, after Brook, to have stepped into the breach as white-ball skipper when Buttler has been absent through injury.
Salt led the way in the T20s against Australia last summer before Brook had his go in the ODIs, while Livingstone was handed the reins for the ODI leg of the West Indies tour towards the end of 2024.
Neither were able to arrest England’s white-ball decline – small sample size, admittedly – as Salt presided over a 1-1 series draw and Livingstone’s charges were beaten 2-1.
Livingstone (pictured above) shone throughout, though – top-scoring in four of those five matches, including tonking a magnificent maiden ODI hundred off just 77 balls in his team’s solitary success in the Caribbean.
However, are both guaranteed places in the white-ball set-up moving forward? T20s, maybe, but both average in the low 30s in ODIs.
Livingstone was initially dropped for the 50-over series against Australia last year, while Salt is flirting with the same fate after a recent run of low scores at the top of the order.
Ben Duckett
One man who has certainly cemented his place in the England white-ball set-up, after years of tugging at the shirt of selectors, is Salt’s opening partner, Duckett.
Watch the best bits from Ben Duckett’s sparkling 165 against Australia in the Champions Trophy
Duckett has excelled across all three formats since his reintroduction into the international fold in late 2022, averaging 53.58 in ODIs in that time, a record which has only improved to 63.90 since being shunted up to open last summer.
While he has yet to similarly sparkle in the T20 arena, a 28-ball 51 against India in the run-up to the Champions Trophy suggested it is soon to be a more consistent occurrence.
Along with Joe Root, he is one of the few members of this England side to come out of this latest debacle at an ICC event with any credit in the back – his 165 off 143 balls in the defeat to Australia briefly standing as a Champions Trophy-record score.
One slight concern with handing him the captaincy, however – just as with Brook – would be how best to manage that workload as a key contributor across all forms.
Sam Curran
A left-field one here.
Curran was Player of the Tournament when England won the 2022 T20 World Cup but has faded from prominence since and was not even selected for the Champions Trophy as McCullum preferred seamers who can sling the ball down at 90mph.
England’s lack of variation in the middle overs was clear during the tournament with the team appearing to miss someone of Curran’s ilk – a cunning left-armer with an ability to delivery cutters and surprise bouncers. His left-handed batting could also have helped.
Curran has captaincy experience with Punjab Kings in the Indian Premier League and Surrey in English domestic cricket and with a Test recall looking unlikely, he could focus on propelling England out of a white-ball funk that has seen nine defeats out of 10.
Joe Root
The best boundaries from Joe Root’s 98-ball century against Afghanistan in the Champions Trophy
It couldn’t happen, could it?
A return to leadership for the former Test captain is among the more unlikely alternatives but, following Buttler’s resignation, McCullum was full of praise for the job Root did that laid the groundwork for his and Stokes’ ‘Bazball’ style hitting the ground running in the red-ball arena.
Might Root be tempted to reap the fruits of that labour this time, rather than look upon them enviously?
The 34-year-old could be a steady pair of hands to steer England through these choppier white-ball waters – and it would at the very least earn him his T20 spot back, which he has been so keenly striving for with stints in the IPL and SA20.
Ben Stokes
This one just isn’t going to happen – but what if it did?!
Stokes and McCullum transformed England’s Test fortunes when they joined forces in the spring of 2022, taking a side that had won one of their previous 17 games and turning them into a Bazballing – and largely winning – machine before a slight plateau of late.
So, could they try and recreate that magic in the white-ball arena as well, giving the country the same leadership group across all formats? No, is the short answer.
Stokes is fully focused on Test cricket after recent knee and hamstring issues, with next winter’s Ashes series in Australia one that will surely define his tenure.
In truth, this white-ball gig looks to be Brook’s if he wants it.
