England’s Test captain Ben Stokes has announced he is retiring from international cricket after the third Test against New Zealand.
England Cricket shared a video of Stokes informing his teammates 15 minutes before the tea break on Day 4 of the third and final Test against New Zealand at Trent Bridge in Nottingham.
“This is my last two days as my captain and my last two days representing England,” Stokes told his teammates in a video released by England Cricket on Sunday.
“Reasons can wait,” Stokes said.
“But I’ve had many trips to the well for this team, for you blokes, for people beforehand. I’ve got one more trip to do.
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“The only thing that I ask please is can everyone else please just do the same.
“We’ve got a lot of hard work still to do and the only think that I want is be able to walk off that field regardless of the result knowing that I’ve had this group of men give everything for the last two days.
“All the taps on the arse, all the emotion, can we please just wait for the end of the game because we’ve still got a sh*tload to do.
“Let’s just go out there and f***ing give absolutely everything for another two days.”
The news filtered around the crowd at Trent Bridge and Stokes, 35, received a standing ovation from England supporters as he toiled through a trademark bowling spell.
The very next ball after his ovation, Stokes picked up a wicket and was mobbed by his England teammates to the delight of the crowd.
Ex-England captain Mike Atherton said on Kayo Sports: “It’s clearly an orchestrated spell. He wants to go out being remembered for one of those bone-shattering spells that has been made him the cricketer he is.”
Stokes received a guard of honour from his England and New Zealand players as he made his way onto the field after the tea break.
Atherton described Stokes’ retirement it as “some absolutely stunning news”.
“It will bring an end to one of the great England careers,” he said.
The theatre continued when Stokes came out to open the batting in the fourth innings.
Set a target of 373 for victory, for a moment a fairytale finish appeared possible when Stokes and Ben Duckett made a 50-run opening stand, but Stokes was out caught for 30 off 20 balls.
After Harry Brook was out for 21 off 9 balls scooping down to fine leg, Atherton quipped: “Didn’t feel like the innings of a captain in waiting.
“England might go down in flames. It’s falling apart for England.”
England finished Day 4 at 4/106 and still requiring 270 runs to win. Staring down the barrel of a 2-1 series defeat, Atherton described England’s batting as “fairly self-indulgent”.
Stokes first casualty of England cricket’s civil war, who will be next captain?
There had been speculation one of Stokes, coach Brendon McCullum and Managing Director of England men’s cricket Rob Key would fall victim to a civil war engulfing England cricket in recent times.
The relationship between Stokes and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) had soured after Stokes and bowler Gus Atkinson were suspended for the second Test against New Zealand for breaking curfew and being involved in a relatively minor nightclub incident in Chelsea, London.
Whispers of a regime change in English cricket grew louder as Stokes’ camp suggested he had been thrown under the bus and not all players were directly told about the midnight curfew.
Stokes, McCullum and Key all kept their jobs after the disastrous Ashes tour of Australia, but the trio’s relationship has appeared increasingly fractured and untenable.
Vice-captain Harry Brook wasn’t suspended after being drunk the night before an ODI against New Zealand earlier this year, and tellingly Joe Root was given the captaincy instead of Brook for the second Test.
Stokes’ retirement now raises the question of whether 35-year-old Root will have a second coming as captain, or if the ECB will give the captaincy to Brook ahead of a home Ashes summer in 2027.
Australia have drawn the past two Ashes series in England and their ageing team is beatable, but the Aussies will feel more confident taking on an England team without Stokes.
McCullum is contracted as England’s coach in all formats until the end of the next ODI World Cup in late 2027.
Atherton said: “The move to give Brendon McCullum all three jobs was a terrible mistake.
“How do you possibly plan ahead for a white ball series that will begin two days after the end of this Test match.”
“It’s an extraordinary, stunning moment and it begs a number of questions,” Atherton said in commentary, questioning the timing of Stokes’ retirement.
“Why and why now in the middle of a day’s cricket with still a day to go and a match to win, draw or lose and a series on the line.
“I think there’d been some signs throughout this series. First at Lord’s when he looked like a man who’d been leading England for four years.
“He obviously missed The Oval match for disciplinary reasons and he has decided enough is enough.”
Cricket reporter Nick Hoult said on The Telegraph’s cricket podcast last week: “It is very hard to see England being led by Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes at the start of the Ashes next year. I don’t know which one will still be there.”
England Cricket said in their social media post: “One of England’s all-time greatest captains, Ben Stokes, has decided to retire from international cricket at the end of this Test match.
“Ben, you have been the most inspirational captain, leader and legend this team could have ever hoped for.
“We love you so much and wish you all the best in your retireme️nt. England will never be the same again.”
Burnt out’ Stokes knew it was time
Speaking after play, Stokes suggested his decision to retire was down to a form slump with the bat, adding he had potentially “burnt myself out” heading into the first Test against New Zealand at Lord’s.
“I gave myself every opportunity to think it was maybe a blip or something wasn’t quite right,” he said.
“As I was putting my pads on yesterday to go out there, that was the nail in the coffin.
“It was the build-up, what things were like through that whole week for me, walking off the field and then another moment when I was sat next to my mate Joe in the dressing room.
“You add another scenario (the suspension) to it that adds so much more to everything. It’s never ever simple or easy with me. That was an unfortunate situation to be involved in the last couple of weeks.”
Stokes said he intends to keep playing cricket including for Durham in County Cricket, but his time playing for England is over.
“Yes, I am… (I will be) going back and playing a little bit of county cricket and other opportunities that there is at the moment,” he told the BBC’s Test Match Special.
He added: “I absolutely love cricket. Being back with Durham, I found a new lease of life with my connection with cricket and I couldn’t get that feeling back here this week as much as I was trying.
“This decision is genuinely the best thing for me now. It’s going to allow me to still love this game. I’m very excited about going back playing for my boyhood club Durham.”
Stokes to go down as one of the greats
Stokes will go down as one of England’s greatest ever players and captains.
Former England fast bowler Stuart Broad called Stokes a “talisman” and “an elite matchwinner”.
Atherton said Stokes was “an all-rounder of immense match changing ability”.
British media heavyweight Piers Morgan meanwhile was fuming over the way Stokes’ career had come to an end.
“NOOOOOOOO. I hate the way this has all played out. Few greater players in the history of English cricket than Ben Stokes – if he’s now been forced on his sword for breaking a pointless curfew after a match was won, that would be an absolute travesty,” Morgan wrote.
Morgan later wrote: “The word Legend is massively over-used in sport… but Ben Stokes is a bona fide Legend. A brilliant, swashbuckling, heroic warrior
“His match-winning century to beat Australia at Headingley in 2019 was the greatest innings I’ve watched by anyone, ever. Thanks Stokesy. “
Stokes will be remembered for countless matchwinning knocks, most famously in the 2019 ODI World Cup final and his stunning 135 not out at Headingley in the 2019 Ashes to break Australia’s hearts.
His final Test numbers are 7,273 runs at 34.46, and 252 wickets at 30.98.
Stokes scored his maiden Test century in Perth in the 2013-14 Ashes and always played some of his best cricket against Australia and was among England’s best in the 2019 and 2023 series.
His swashbuckling double century off 163 balls against South Africa in 2016 announced Stokes as one of the most dangerous and attacking cricketers of his era.