Ben Stokes has announced his shock-retirement from international cricket during the third Test between New Zealand and England at Trent Bridge.
The announcement of his retirement came 15 minutes before Tea on day four, while Stokes was in the middle of a marathon bowling spell. The news drew shocked reactions from pundits, as well as reaction from notable figures in the game.
Speaking just after the announcement was made on BBC Test Match Special, former England captain Michael Vaughan said: “I can’t believe it. I’m absolutely stunned… Clearly, the incident is not going to have helped, relationships clearly have been fractured in some nature or form… I need time to take that all in. We have to hear from Ben on the reasons why.”
Vaughan: 'There is a reminder of what England are going to miss'
With the first ball he bowled following his retirement announcement, Stokes took the wicket of Zak Foulkes, drawing an edge which was taken low in the slips by Harry Brook. Following the wicket, Vaughan said: “Well, there is just a reminder of what England are going to miss. That’s exactly why he’s a great, an incredible player… But I’m completely stunned I never ever saw that coming. But I saw that coming [wicket]. Because that’s exactly what he’s done throughout his whole career. Every time England needed something, and they need something now, he’s always pretty much delivered.”
Speaking during the tea interval on BBC Test Match Special, another former England captain, Alastair Cook, said: “Shocked, I suppose, because of the timing of it. I look now, I suppose it’s a typical Ben Stokes way of doing it. He does things differently, so he did it differently. I can only assume this isn’t a wake up yesterday morning, or wake up when New Zealand are 300-0 and look round and going, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore.” It just can’t be like that. It might be, maybe that’s how Ben operates.
“But I assume that over the last three or four months since the Ashes, this must have been on his mind. It has to have been. He came back and thought, I’ll go again, and maybe in that first game at Lord’s, he’s come back and looked around, and he’s lost that something that made him drive this team forward.”
Woakes: 'What a servant to the English game'
Speaking on Sky Sports Cricket during the tea interval, former England bowler and Stokes' teammate Chris Woakes said: “The crowd have a connection with Ben Stokes, as we all do. The way he’s played his cricket over the years, he leaves every last ounce out on the field. Who writes his scripts is what Stuart [Broad] said, and the crowd realised what happened here with him retiring from international cricket, the atmosphere was electrifying. It was amazing to be here for it actually. What a servant to the English game.”
Speaking on air with Woakes, Stuart Broad said: “I just said to Michael Atherton upstairs, I’ve got a funny feeling he’s going to open the batting and get a hundred as well.”
When New Zealand declared in the evening session, setting England a target of 373 runs to win, Stokes walked out with Ben Duckett to open the batting in his final innings as an England player. Speaking on Sky Sports commentary, Dinesh Karthik said: “For one last time, we'll be seeing one of the greatest allrounders ever to have graced the game take it on with the bat. What a moment to be doing it, chasing 373 and he's come out there and said, 'I want to start this game off myself.”
Reacting to Stokes' retirement on TalkSport, former England wicketkeeper Matt Prior said: "I've not spoken to a single player who wouldn't follow that guy off the edge of the earth. He's not asking others to run through brick walls, he's running through the brick wall and just saying, follow me through the brick wall, I'll make the hole. You can't get away from that. I think it would be a very very sad day that we criticise Ben Stokes for his captaincy. His win per centage is 50 per cent, the highest of any England captain."
Stokes will retire from the game with 122 Test caps to his name, having played a defining role in some of England's most memorable moments in recent history during his career.
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