Former England captain and batting great, Michael Vaughan came to the defence of Ben Stokes after former Australian captain Tim Paine alleged the English Test skipper of being selfish. Paine's remarks came after Stokes decided to come out of his ODI retirement and made himself available for selection in England's ODI World Cup squad.
"Ben Stokes coming out of one day retirement, I found that interesting. It was a bit of, 'Me, me, me', there isn't it? It was," Paine told SEN Radio.
"It was like 'I'll pick and I'll choose where I want to play and when I want to play', and, 'I'll play in the big tournaments'. The guys who played for 12 months, 'Sorry, thanks. But can you go and sit on the bench because I want to play now?'," he said.
Reacting to Paine's comments, Vaughan took to X (formerly known as Twitter) and ridiculed the ex-Aussie wicketkeeper-batter's take on Stokes. Vaughan called Stokes a 'selfless' cricketer who always puts the team before himself.
"Ben stokes is the most selfless cricketer I have ever known .. He puts Team before himself more than any other player .. Ridiculous suggestion from Tim .." tweeted Vaughan.
The England all-rounder, who decided to give up ODIs due to workload and a constant battle with a knee injury, has been named in the Three Lions provisional squad for the 2023 ODI World Cup.
Stokes played a crucial role in England's World Cup triumph in 2019 and his impact on big games is second to none. Having said that, the right-arm medium pacer has been dealing with a knee injury for a long time that has hampered him from bowling full throttle. Even if Stokes makes it to England's main squad for the quadrennial competition in India later in the year, there are high of chances of the all-rounder playing as a pure batter.
The Three Lions are scheduled to play seven ODIs before the warm-up matches for the ODI World Cup begin. As defending champions, England will enter the competition as one of the favourites to lift the glittering silverware once again. And if selected, Stokes might just prove to be the difference-maker once again.
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