Andrew Strauss was the last England skipper to reach the summit back in 2011, holding the title for less than a year, but the annual update of the International Cricket Council's table recently catapulted Stokes's side from fifth to second. Only rivals Australia remain above them.
When he took over from Joe Root in 2022, the team had slumped to sixth and their lowest points tally in 27 years, but have since won 22 of their last 35 matches.
With Thursday's one-off game against Zimbabwe followed by a five-match home series against India and a huge Ashes trip down under to come this winter, further successes could lift them back to top.
And Stokes made his ambitions plain in a message to head coach Brendon McCullum and managing director Rob Key.
"When the rankings came out, I did send Baz and Keysy a text saying, 'We've got one more place to go'," he said.
"Everyone knows when things are going well for us as a team we are incredibly hard to stop. We know it doesn't always go that way.
"The word 'ruthless', I'm not a big fan of. The words I do love and what I've tried to instil in this team is 'dominance' and 'dominate'.
"Whatever situation we find ourselves in the game, that's the word I want to be at the front of our heads."
England finished a subdued fifth in the most recent World Test Championship table, a curiously uneven structure that rewards teams with gentler fixture lists and heavily penalises slow over-rates.
Stokes has been an outspoken critic of the formula in the past and suggested England's rankings rise bolstered his case.
"I did make some comments around the World Test Championship and they might make a little bit more sense now, considering we've jumped up to second," he said.
This week's match at Trent Bridge represents Stokes's first competitive action since December, when he tore his hamstring in Hamilton. It was a recurrence of a similar injury sustained last summer, leading to a second successive bout of surgery and rehabilitation.
He intends to be back as a fully-functioning allrounder though he may not be required to take an intensive bowling load over the coming days in Nottingham.
Meanwhile, England bowler Jofra Archer has been hit by yet another injury setback that could delay plans for a Test comeback against India.
The 30-year-old hurt his right thumb while fielding for Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League and initial hopes of a quick recovery have receded.
Instead, he is believed to be facing up to a month on the sidelines and has been withdrawn from the forthcoming one-day series against the West Indies.
That timeline also puts his expected red-ball return in doubt.
Archer's return to action has been carefully managed and he was pencilled in to play for England Lions against India next month with a view to making his long-awaited Test return during the subsequent five-match series.
Archer played the last of his 13 Tests in February 2021 and has since endured multiple injuries to his elbow and back.
England will now need to revisit their plans when he is fit for action again and assess if a Test outing before the end of this summer is viable.
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