England managing director of men's cricket Rob Key has backed Ben Stokes to succeed Jos Buttler after he resigned from white-ball captaincy last week. The decision from Buttler came after England exited the Champions Trophy 2025 at the group stage, losing all three matches including against Afghanistan. According to Key, Stokes is one of the options and rates him high for his captaincy stint in the red-ball format where England have flourished ever since he took over in June 2022.

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Key backs Stokes for captaincy role

"Ben Stokes is one of the best captains I've ever seen, so it'd be stupid not to look at him. It's just the knock-on effect of what that means. I believe that Test cricket and 50-over cricket are probably closer now, with T20 the outlier," said Key, as quoted by Sky Sports.

"I think nothing's off the table," Key said of the 33-year-old. "You look at every single option and you think, 'What is the best thing to do?'”

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On Friday (Feb 28), Buttler decided to step down from his role as white-ball captain of England, which has led to host of names linked with the vacant position. Harry Brook is the front-runner to take the captaincy role having been recently announced as the vice-captain when England toured India before the Champions Trophy.

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However, Stokes remains one of the best options having proven his worth in the Test format. Interestingly, he had announced his retirement from the ODI format in 2022, but retracted to be in the squad for the 2023 ODI World Cup in India.

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England have achieved major success under Stokes in Test format having won series against New Zealand, Pakistan and South Africa while also performing on multiple fronts to win matches for the side. Ben Duckett and Phil Salt are part of the conversation to England in white-ball cricket.