Former England pacer Steve Harmison is not convinced with the idea of Ben Stokes being made the captain of the Test team. The visitors are trailing by 0-2 in the ongoing Ashes series and with the way Australia have dominated the series so far, the prospects of another whitewash can’t be ruled out.
With all the pressure from the media and former, the positions of coach and captain will be under the scanner if results don’t go England’s way in the next three tests. And Ben Stokes is a frontrunner to take the captaincy role if Joe Root decides to step away. However Harmison is strongly against the idea as he believes that the all-rounder has already too much on his plate.
“Make Ben captain? That would be the worst thing they could do. That would be as bad as anything that has happened at Brisbane. Nasser bowling first, my first ball and then Joe batting first this time.” Harmison said in an interview with Sportsmail.
“When Ben decided to take some time away from the game that was the lightbulb moment. We have to protect our superstars and putting too much pressure on Ben would be the biggest mistake of all,” he added further
Notable that the all-rounder made a comeback after taking a long break to focus on his mental health and finger injury. The absence of the all-rounder was evident for England in the summer as they lost both the test series against New Zealand and India in their home season.
“That would be as bad as anything that has happened to England cricket”
“I’m sorry. Ben Stokes can’t play for the England Test team, 50-over side, T20 team and Rajasthan Royals and be Test captain. You can’t ask him to do all that. He’d do the job and he will have a go at me for saying this but even though he’s superhuman at times that would be too much.” he said.
However, Ben Stokes hadn’t made much impression in the ongoing Ashes as the all-rounder scored just 65 runs in 4 innings though he bowled well in patches. The third test will begin on December 26 at the historic ground of Melbourne.