England captain Ben Stokes confirmed that he apologized to his teammates ahead of his return for the series-deciding third Test against New Zealand at Trent Bridge.

Following England's 115-run victory in the opening Test at Lord's, Stokes and fast bowler Gus Atkinson breached the team's midnight curfew at a London nightclub. They were reportedly nearby during an altercation where a member of England's security staff was struck by a rugby player.

Both players were handed one-match suspension by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and missed the second Test at The Oval. They ultimately escaped severe punishment, receiving only a written warning for breaking contractual obligations after investigations cleared them of direct involvement in the nightclub violence.

In their absence, a heavily rotated England squad led by stand-in skipper Joe Root suffered a heavy 253-run defeat in the second Test. The absences meant three England players had to make their debuts under highly distracting circumstances.

Speaking to media on the eve of the final Test, Stokes stated that as a leader, it was vital to take full responsibility. The all-rounder emphasized that he needed to be "man enough" to look his teammates in the eye and apologize for a situation that took the focus away from the squad and the debutants.

"That was one of the first things I had to do as a captain," Stokes told reporters.

"It affected Joe, it affected the squad, it affects the people outside the playing environment. It no doubt had an effect on the lads who were making their debut. That should have been all about them, but unfortunately a situation out of their control took precedence over their big day of making their debut for England in Test cricket," he added.

Ben Stokes further stressed that leadership involves apologizing and owning your mistakes.

"It would be stupid and naive for me not to acknowledge that and address that. It's all fine and well everything being fine and dandy when it's going well, but you need to take responsibility for things as well. If that's you that needs to take that responsibility, you need to be big enough and man enough to be able to take that upon your shoulders, look everyone in the eye, and apologise how you need to apologise. That's what I did," he said.

The 34-year-old vehemently denied rumours of rift with England head coach Brendon McCullum.

"You don't plan on going through something like this together in a professional environment. Me and Brendon were talking pretty much every day in the initial period. Maybe in the future we'll look back on this and go, this did bring us tighter. This rift, this drifting apart, we certainly haven't drifted," he remarked.

With the three-match series tied at 1-1, Stokes said that individual distractions are being set aside to secure a series win.

"The main thing about me being back, Gus being back, is for us to focus on the main objective, which is the cricket this week. "It's 1-1 in the series, we've got one game left, and the importance of the result of this game is the one thing we need to concentrate on," he concluded.