England's Ben Stokes on Monday (July 18) announced his retirement from the 50-over format, which came as a shock to everyone. The all-rounder made this decision to minimize his workload amidst a tight schedule from the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) since he was mindful that his body won't be able to support all three formats.
The first ODI between England and South Africa on Tuesday (July 19) was Stokes' last. In a conversation with former England captain Nasser Hussain for Sky Sports, he opened up about his decision to stop playing ODIs.
The 31-year-old revealed that after the first ODI against India, he had made up his mind that he is going to take the big call.
“I guess it was a number of things. The schedule and almost everything that’s expected of us these days for me is unsustainable. It was actually after 1st ODI against India, it was sort of quite clear for me to take the decision. When you start thinking about such things like that it’s almost clear. One person I spoke to who probably said that the best thing that was said to me if there’s any doubt, there’s no doubt," Stokes revealed.
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England’s Test captain acknowledged that due to a busy international calendar, his body was not allowing him to play all three formats. As a result, he was unable to contribute to the ODI team in the way he wanted.
“It’s hard to know that you have been looked after, you have been managed, you know for all the other cricket that’s got coming up and you know as I said in my statement that England’s shirt deserves the 100 percent off whoever wears it. Unfortunately, I just didn’t like the feeling of not being able to contribute in the way that I want to be able to do. You know as an all-rounder, I want to contribute with the bat, I want to contribute with the ball, and also the feeling of stopping someone else from being able to progress in the format for England," he added.
"I know that is important to go out there and be able to give the captain the coach and the rest of the team 100 percent. When I thought about it long and hard, I realized that I don’t feel I can do that in all three formats, and obviously after how the body felt after the Test series coming to this, you know it was made knowing that I can’t go out there and give my all," he explained.
The 2019 World Cup final hero admitted further that he had considered making this choice in the past, but he wasn't sure which white-ball format to choose at the time.
“I always knew that at some point I would have to choose one of the white-ball formats to continue but I just didn’t know which one and then literally after the 1st ODI against India it just hit me in the face," he said.
The batting all-rounder also revealed his conversation with white-ball captain Jos Buttler regarding the decision.
“I had a quick chat with Jos Buttler after the game and just said if the game was in a different situation I would have carried on bowling there for a year and then we had a little five minutes together and he said you need to look after yourself. When I went away after that and in just 5 minutes to myself, that’s when I told him, I almost felt just a bit like useless that I can’t do that and it’s not a nice feeling," he added.
On Tuesday, the Proteas won the toss and elected to bat first. They posted a massive total of 333/5 in 50 overs on the back of a stellar century from Rassie van der Dussen (134 off 117 balls). Stokes went for 44 runs in 5 overs.
In reply, the home side was bowled out for just 271 with the southpaw only managing 5 off 11 balls.
Ben Stokes signs off with 2919 runs and 74 wickets in 104 ODIs.
(SKY SPORTS INPUTS)
