Harmison offers Stokes advice after England's "dumb cricket" during Ashes
Ben Stokes has been told to forget about white-ball cricket following England's humiliating World Cup exit and focus on captaining the Test team.
Stokes retired from ODIs last year, just three months after he replaced Joe Root as England's Test captain, citing the "unsustainable" schedule and a desire to focus his efforts on his new role. However, he was tempted out of retirement for England's World Cup defence, having been the matchwinner in the final against New Zealand four years ago.
But things did not go to plan for Stokes or England as they were knocked out of the tournament with just one win from their first seven group games. Stokes missed England's first three matches with a hip problem and is now set to undergo surgery on a chronic knee injury which he hopes will allow him to start bowling regularly again, having only delivered 29 overs during the recent Ashes series.
And England legend Steve Harmison believes Stokes should now "concentrate all his efforts" on trying to "make England the best Test team possible", having revolutionised their style of play alongside head coach Brendon McCullum and enjoyed great success in the process.
Under Stokes' captaincy, England have earned impressive wins over New Zealand, India, South Africa, Pakistan and Ireland. In fact, England are yet to suffer a series defeat with Stokes and McCullum at the helm, although they were unable to regain the Ashes as they drew 2-2 when Harmison feels they "should have won comfortably".
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Speaking exclusively to Mirror Sport on behalf of OnlineCricketBetting, Harmison said of Stokes: "We've seen a little bit of what could possibly have been with what happened in the last three games. If he hadn't been injured for the first three games then who knows?
"He could have dragged England out of one or two situations they found themselves in in the early part of the competition and they still may have had a fighting chance of fourth spot. But I don't see Ben Stokes playing 50-over cricket again unless it's in a major tournament and I probably wouldn't ask him to.
Steve Harmison believes Ben Stokes should now focus solely on captaining England's Test team (Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)"I think the biggest thing for Ben now is being fit for India and concentrating on leading the Test team which is on a nice little run at the minute. Even though they drew the Ashes they played well in large passages, they just played some dumb cricket in key battles where Australia took advantage and managed to wrestle a draw.
"England should have won the Ashes comfortably, but they didn't and that is something Ben and Brendon need to address. If you think the 50-over World Cup in India was tough, you ain't seen nothing yet when it comes to the five Tests in India. That's what Ben needs to concentrate all his efforts on, trying to make England the best Test team possible."
Despite England's poor showing at the World Cup, where they suffered shock defeats to Afghanistan and Sri Lanka and heavy losses against South Africa and India, Harmison believes captain Jos Buttler and Matthew Mott deserve the chance to rebuild an ageing ODI side ahead of the 2025 Champions Trophy and the next World Cup in 2027.
Matthew Mott and Jos Buttler have been backed to lead a rebuild after England's horrific World Cup defence (Getty Images)"Rob Key has rightly said Jos Buttler and Matthew Mott are the ones to go forward and there will be a lot of players who won't play 50-over cricket again for England," Harmison added. "You're trying to put your finger on what happened and nobody can because this is a team that's played so well for so long and for them all to fall out of form in the space of a month... I don't think anybody could have predicted that.
"You can look at the hierarchy and the management and say 'could we have foreseen this?' I don't think you could. The players that were involved are all-time greats of English white-ball cricket. I don't think even one percent of the population would have said this was going to happen, but it did and what they have to do is try and draw a line under it quickly and move on.
"It's not about what has gone, it's about what's coming and I think that is the most important thing for English cricket right now. People can say they've not played enough 50-over cricket together as a side, but I don't buy that."
England suffered a string of humiliating defeats at the World Cup (Matt Roberts-ICC/ICC via Getty Images)England are back in action on December 3 when they begin a white-ball tour of the West Indies, with Buttler and Mott leading a new-look side. Only six players from the World Cup squad have made England's ODI squad, while Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid and Chris Woakes were included for the T20s with a T20 World Cup set for next year.
Fringe players like Rehan Ahmed, Brydon Carse, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Will Jacks, Ollie Pope, Josh Tongue and John Turner have all been given opportunities to impress and Harmison is looking forward to seeing how they go. "There's some good names, some exciting names," he said.
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"I'm pleased that John Turner and Josh Tongue are getting a go. They're two bowlers who have got pace. It's a shame that Jofra (Archer) is not coming back, but we'll get Jofra back when he's ready. I think Liam Livingstone has to stand up now. He's got huge potential with the bat, huge potential with the ball and he's an excellent fielder but he's in his 30s now and he needs to deliver. He's probably the only one I would say is quite fortunate to be on that trip.
Liam Livingstone has been warned he "needs to deliver" on his potential after a poor World Cup (ARUN SANKAR/AFP via Getty Images)"I'm pleased Jos Buttler is leading the white ball group because he is the right man, along with Matthew Mott, and it's now Jos' time to put his stamp on the group and say 'This is my team now. Eoin's gone and I've got four years to build a group to win a World Cup'.
"That is exciting because Jos Buttler is the best white ball cricketer we've ever produced and he should get the chance to go and put his own stamp on 25-35 cricketers for the Champions Trophy and then the World Cup in 2027. Good players need to learn to adapt quickly and these guys will learn how to adapt quickly.
"I think good players can play all formats. That is the challenge for these new players coming into this group on this next cycle. If they say 'we don't play this format enough' then they're making excuses… if you fail you're not good enough. If they're the best players we've got then they need to go out prove it. The reason why England didn't do well in the World Cup is they stood still and other teams have gone past them at a great rate."
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