In what was a shocking announcement, England Test skipper Ben Stokes on Monday (18th July) called time on his ODI career. The all-rounder stated that he was not being able to give his 100 percent to the team in the 50-over format and playing all three formats of the game amid a busy schedule was "unsustainable" for him.
Following Stokes’ decision to retire from the ODIs, former English cricketer Kevin Pietersen took a jibe at the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) for the unexpected retirement of Stokes from one format of the game.
Pietersen recalled that when he complained about the schedule and retired from ODIs, he was banned from T20Is as well.
"I once said the schedule was horrendous and I couldn’t cope, so I retired from ODI cricket & the ECB banned me from T20s too," Kevin Pietersen had tweeted.
Reacting to this, one fan took a dig at Pietersen and said that he played long ago and things have changed. He said: "You played many years ago. Things have changed as they often do."
Taking a note of this, Pietersen gave a blunt reply to the fan and said "I made them change!"
Talking about Stokes’ ODI career, the all-rounder played his last match against South Africa on Tuesday (19th July). He played 105 ODIs for England in which he scored 2924 runs at an average of 38.99 to go with 3 tons and 21 half-centuries. With the ball, the all-rounder has taken 74 wickets at an economy of 6.
