England World Cup hero says playing all three formats is \u2018unsustainable\u2019
\n London
\nBen Stokes has announced that he will retire from ODI cricket immediately after England play South Africa at Chester-le-Street on Tuesday.
\nStokes was appointed as England\u2019s Test captain earlier this year and said that playing three formats was \u201cjust unsustainable for me now\u201d and that he felt as though he was blocking opportunities for other players.
\nHe had been due to play all six of England\u2019s ODIs this summer and rest throughout their T20I commitments against India and South Africa, as well as the Hundred, but has now opted to quit the 50-over game in order to give \u201ceverything I have to Test cricket\u201d and \u201cmy total commitment to the T20 format\u201d.
\nTuesday\u2019s ODI at his home ground, the Riverside, will be Stokes\u2019 105th game for England in the format, having made his debut against Ireland in 2011. He heads into his final appearance with a batting average of 39.44 at a strike rate of 95.26, and has taken 74 wickets. His defining performance in the format was his innings of 84 not out to force the 2019 World Cup final to a Super Over, in which he then added eight runs off three balls to help England lift the trophy for the first time.
\n\u201cI can\u2019t give my team-mates 100% of myself in this format anymore,\u201d Stokes said in a statement. \u201cThis has been an incredibly tough decision to make. I have loved every minute of playing with my mates for England. We have had an incredible journey on the way.
\n\u201cAs hard as a decision as this was to come to, it\u2019s not as hard dealing with the fact I can\u2019t give my teammates 100% of myself in this format anymore. The England shirt deserves nothing less from anyone who wears it.\u201d
\nStokes took a break from the game last summer to focus on his mental health and did not register for the IPL auction earlier this year in a bid to manage his workload across formats. He said in his statement that his body was \u201cletting him down\u201d due to the demands of the schedule and he was visibly hobbling after stooping to take a catch off Hardik Pandya in the third ODI at Old Trafford on Sunday.
\nEngland\u2019s fixture list this summer involves seven Tests spread across three-and-a-half months, plus a dozen limited-overs internationals in the space of 25 days in July. Their schedule has been relentless since international cricket resumed in July 2020 after the initial hiatus during the first Covid-19 lockdown and will continue to place huge demands on players in coming years: a late draft of the 2023-27 Future Tours Programme, seen by ESPNcricinfo, includes 42 Tests, 44 ODIs and 52 T20Is outside of ICC events over a four-year period.
\n\u201cThree formats are just unsustainable for me now,\u201d he said. \u201cNot 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 Jos and the rest of the team their all. It\u2019s time for someone else to progress as a cricketer and make incredible memories like I have over the past 11 years.
\n\u201cI will give everything I have to Test cricket, and now, with this decision, I feel I can also give my total commitment to the T20 format. I would like to wish Jos Buttler, Matthew Mott, the players and the support staff every success going forward. We have made great strides in white-ball cricket over the past seven years, and the future looks bright.
\n\u201cI have loved all 104 games I have played so far, I\u2019ve got one more, and it feels amazing to be playing my last game at my home ground in Durham. As always, the England fans have always been there for me and will continue to be there. You\u2019re the best fans in the world. I hope we can win on Tuesday and set the series up nicely against South Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
England World Cup hero says playing all three formats is \u2018unsustainable\u2019 London Ben Stokes has announced that he will retire from ODI cricket immediately after England play South Africa at Chester-le-Street on Tuesday. Stokes was appointed as England\u2019s Test captain earlier this year and said that playing three formats was \u201cjust unsustainable for me now\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272157,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-272124","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n