“Buttler won’t be outspoken like Thalaivar Rajini from Jailer” - Ravichandran Ashwin’s amusing take on Ben Stokes’ possible ODI retirement U-turn

Team India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has compared the ongoing drama in the England set-up to try and convince Ben Stokes to come out of ODI retirement for the upcoming World Cup to the Tamil movie “Friends”.

While Stokes captains England in Test cricket, keeper-batter Jos Buttler is the white-ball leader. Stokes recently led the Englishmen in the Ashes 2023 series at home. The closely contested five-match series ended 2-2, but Australia retained the urn.

Meanwhile, on Monday (August 14), England white-ball coach Matthew Mott disclosed that Buttler will have a talk with Stokes to see if he's willing to feature in the 2023 ODI World Cup in India. The all-rounder had retired from the format last year, saying that playing all three versions of cricket was “unsustainable” for him.

Sharing his thoughts on the action-packed development in the England camp, Ashwin said on his YouTube channel:

“As Vadivelu says to a guy in the movie Friends, “Dude, watch that guy for some time.

"It seems Jos Buttler’s duty is to watch Ben Stokes, according to Matthew Mott. So, Jos Buttler is keeping an eye on Ben Stokes. It’s Jos Buttler’s responsibility now to bring Ben Stokes out of retirement and make him available for the 50-over World Cup.

Speaking about his Rajasthan Royals teammate in the Indian Premier League, the 36-year-old added:

“Jos Buttler is not a man of many words. He hardly speaks. So, my guess is that he will go to Ben Stokes and say, 'Dude, please join us. It will be really nice if you come out of retirement.'

As far as I know, he (Buttler) is more like Suriya's character from the same movie, Friends. Soft-spoken. Buttler won’t be outspoken like Thalaivar Rajini from the movie Jailer. He will try his best to bring Ben Stokes out of retirement."

Stokes has played 105 ODIs, scoring 2924 runs at an average of 38.98. He was one of the heroes of England’s 2019 World Cup triumph at home.

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Is Ben Stokes willing to reverse ODI retirement?

As per media reports, Stokes is willing to come out of ODI retirement to feature in the World Cup in India later this year. As per Sky Sports, Stokes would play in the World Cup as a specialist batter and not bowl at all due to his troubled knee.

The deadline for teams to submit their 2023 ODI World Cup squads is September 5. Teams, thiugh, will be allowed to make changes to their squad till September 27.