MELBOURNE: Ben Stokes's return to the T20I team for England has added to Jos Buttler's selection dilemma ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup. The white-ball captain wants to play the charismatic all-rounder at the top of the order, but he knows that on Australia's bouncey pitches, it could make the bowling team weaker.

"We want to give him (Stokes) as many chances as possible to make an impact on the game, so we try to move him up the order as high as we can," Buttler told ICC on Tuesday. "We want to give him as much responsibility as possible and let him play his way to get the most out of him," said England white-ball coach Matthew Mott. With Alex Hales likely to bat with Jos Buttler at the top of the order and Dawid Malan almost certain to bat at No. 3, Stokes could bat at No. 4.

Buttler has said that Stokes could be brought in before Malan if the openers have a great start.

But putting Stokes at No. 4 or No. 3 could make it hard for England to decide who to pick. Before the warm-up games against Australia and Pakistan, the Test captain hadn't played a T20 game in almost two years. He also hadn't played much in domestic or franchise tournaments during this time.

Also, Stokes' record in T20Is for his country isn't very good. Part of this is because he has been batting lower in the order so far. But because Stokes hit 36 runs off 18 balls against Pakistan in the last warm-up game, coming in at number three, Buttler and the team management will definitely put him in the Playing XI.

Buttler had said earlier this month, "Ben is a superstar and someone you want on your team." "It's very exciting to have him back," said one fan, "but having him bat first could make it hard for England to decide who to pick." When Liam Livingstone came back from an injury, he hit 28 out of 16 against Pakistan. For him to get into the team, either a top bowler or one of the top six will have to be dropped, and all of them have very strong cases.

England would have a very strong batting line-up if they put Stokes at number four and Livingstone as low as number seven. Buttler would need Stokes, Livingstone, and Moeen Ali to bowl at least four overs, which won't work well on pitches that don't always help spin.

Given his form leading up to the tournament, the most likely choice would be to put Sam Curran at number eight as one of four frontline bowlers. However, ICC says that this feels like a bowler short because England doesn't have a gun finisher in their team.

With Stokes on the team and Curran at number seven, England would have a lot of bowling options, and Curran has shown that he can do well in that position by scoring 33 runs in just 14 balls against Pakistan on Monday.

The question is which batter doesn't get to bat. Livingstone looked great against Pakistan, and after his successful tour against Pakistan, Harry Brook also did well in that game. It might be hard to leave either of these batters off the team.

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