England test captain Ben Stokes retires from ODI cricket
Cricket
England test captain Ben Stokes retires from ODI cricket
LONDON (AP) — England test cricket captain Ben Stokes will retire from one-day internationals after Tuesday’s match with South Africa, ending an ODI career which peaked with winning the World Cup in 2019.
Stokes said Monday he remains fully committed to Twenty20 internationals as well as the test captaincy, but that he needed a break from the punishing schedule.
“As hard as a decision as this was to come to, it’s not as hard dealing with the fact I can’t give my teammates 100% of myself in this format anymore. The England shirt deserves nothing less from anyone who wears it,” Stokes said in a statement.
“Three formats are just unsustainable for me now. Not only do I feel that my body is letting me down because of the schedule and what is expected of us, but I also feel that I am taking the place of another player who can give (England ODI captain) Jos (Buttler) and the rest of the team their all.”
The match against South Africa will be Stokes’ 105th ODI for England and comes at the Riverside ground at Chester-le-Street, the home of Stokes’ county team Durham.
Stokes’ defining performance in ODIs came in the 2019 World Cup final, when he scored 84 not out as England tied New Zealand’s score and then eight more runs in the deciding super over.
Since taking over the test captaincy in April, Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum have transformed the team with an aggressive, big-hitting style more reminiscent of ODI and T20 cricket than the often-sedate five-day format.
