"It'd be stupid not to look at him" - Robert Key's massive statement on Jos Buttler's successor after England's 2025 Champions Trophy failure

England's men's cricket team's managing director Robert Key has hinted at Ben Stokes as Jos Buttler's successor following their group-stage exit in Champions Trophy 2025. However, Key has also said that they will not rush into any decision and take some time before finalizing the candidate.

Buttler stepped down following England's defeat against Afghanistan, with the national team getting knocked out from the eight-team tournament. With the Englishmen ending their campaign without a win and Buttler's own form also coming under scrutiny, the keeper-batter's position became unteneble.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Key said Stokes is one of the best captains he has seen. However, he also floated the names of Liam Livingstone, Harry Brook and Phil Salt. He elaborated, as quoted by Sky Sports:

"I think nothing's off the table. You look at every single option and you think, 'what is the best thing to do?' 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. You're just looking for the best person, really, someone who you think can take this forward.

" We're not going to rush this decision as well. We'll take a bit of time. We've had a plan in place where we've looked at lots of different people, so we've seen Phil Salt, Liam Livingstone, Harry Brook [in the role], there's plenty of options."

Brook, who served as the vice-captain, is amongst the frontrunners to succeed, with age also on his side. The Yorkshire did a promising job in Buttler's absence duirng the ODI series against Australia at home last year. However, Brook also had a forgettable Champions Trophy with the bat, aggregating only 47 runs.

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"We haven't been particularly good in white-ball cricket" - Robert Key

Robert Key and Brendon McCullum. (Credits: Getty)

Key feels England's current side is hardly anywhere near the team that won the 50-overs World Cup under Eoin Morgan. The 45-year-old especially highlighted their batting woes, claiming how the quality has fallen off a cliff, adding:

"We were very poor. The truth is, we haven't been particularly good in white-ball cricket, probably since the last era when Eoin Morgan did it, and that's for lots of different reasons. We look at every single thing, whether it's variety in the attack, all the things that you read about. We think about where's our left-arm spinner coming from? Is it [Liam] Dawson?"

"Or are we going to go with just out-and-out pace to try and do what we think is our strength: pack the team full of batting, chase down anything and get over-par scores with the bat? We could have changed the selection, yes, but the fact is that if you're not batting well and batting is your strength, that becomes a massive issue. When you start looking at it, over the last couple of years, the batting in particular has fallen off a cliff."

England's next 50-overs assignment is against West Indies at home in May-June.