Follow Us16 months ago, Ben Stokes rather shockingly announced that he was retiring from one day internationals in order to manage his workload, but the England Test skipper did a sensational u-turn a month prior to the 50-over World Cup, making himself available again.
With Stokes powering England to the T20 World Cup title last year, many expected a similar outcome in the ODI World Cup but instead Stokes’ return has proven to be anticlimactic, with the Three Lions finishing seventh on the table, failing to make it to the semi-finals.
32 now, it is unlikely that Stokes will partake in the 2027 World Cup and it would make a lot of logical sense for the all-rounder to re-retire from ODI cricket, focusing exclusively on Tests and T20s.
However, speaking to Sky Sports post the Pakistan clash, Stokes refused to confirm that he will, for sure, be stepping away from 50-over cricket, and said that he’s yet to make a decision.
"It goes back to my initial reason for stepping away from this format, it was just through workload,” Stokes told Sky Sports.
"I'm Test captain, got a lot of stuff coming up, there's a lot of stuff that I want to do with that Test team and that'll be a decision that probably I'll have to think about quite hard. But who knows where everything is? I've a bit of a clean-out coming up so you never know, the body might be in a lot better position than it was in the last 18 months."
Stokes missed the first few games of the ongoing World Cup with a hip niggle but the bigger injury that’s been bothering him is the dodgy knee, for which he is supposed to undergo surgery in the coming weeks. Considering the first India Test starts on January 25, there won’t be much time for Stokes to recover, however, the 32-year-old asserted that he ‘should’ be good to go in time for the five-Test series.
"I've put a lot of hard work in away from cricket to give myself the best chance of a quicker recovery and, with Christmas and everything coming up, the main thing for me is getting this knee right and being ready and raring to go for that Test series in India,” Stokes said.
Stokes once again reiterated that it was hard to put a finger on what exactly went wrong for England over the course of the past month.
"I've said it quite a few times when I've constantly been asked what's gone wrong, can you put your finger on it? No. We've just been, I'll rephrase it, we've been a bit rubbish," he said.
"Ourselves in the dressing-room, people outside, will obviously be frustrated. We're flabbergasted as to why things have gone the way that they have gone. But look, if anyone could have the answer to situations that a team like us found ourselves in from eight weeks ago they'd be an absolute genius.
"It's obviously just going to be very frustrating to look back on and just going to be one of those things that, as professional athletes and professional sportsmen, we're going to have to get over because there's always something else around the corner, there's always something else to play for.
“There's always another big tournament to play in and something that I've lived my career by is you're only as good as the next game, which manages to keep you very, very level through success or failure.
"Success is brilliant, but failure as well can also be an unbelievable thing to give people experience, especially young people who are trying to make their way in international cricket. Our senior players are very frustrated and the younger guys trying to make their way will be very frustrated with how things have gone. But through failures and through frustration, that can also take you to the next level just as much as success can."