Both Stokes and Atkinson, issued with a written conduct warning<\/a> while cleared of any wrongdoing in a physical altercation, have been restored to the England team for the series decider.<\/p>\nNZ chase victory in 2nd test v England | 00:58<\/p>\n
Stokes said he was \u201cback properly\u201d for the finale, but declined to say if he was back for good while speaking to reporters at Trent Bridge on Wednesday \u2013 his first public comment on the incident since he was omitted from the second Test.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope you (the media) respect in terms of this whole week, I\u2019m (only) focusing on this week,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s where my focus is at right now \u2026 I\u2019m here as captain of this team and all I want to do is get the team focused on winning here,\u201d insisted Stokes, who made 95 for county side Durham last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are 1-1 in a three-match series and this week is massive for the team.\u201d <\/p>\n
Stokes, asked if he had apologised to the team when he spoke before training on Wednesday, said: \u201cOf course. That was one of the first things I had to do as captain.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be stupid and naive of me not to acknowledge and address that. It\u2019s something you do have to do, as someone who has responsibility of being a leader in a group.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all fine, everything being fine and dandy, when it\u2019s going well but you need to take responsibility for things as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou need to be big enough and man enough to be able to take that upon your shoulders, look everyone in the eye who it\u2019s affected and apologise how you need to apologise. That\u2019s something I did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Late wickets give England edge on day 1 | 01:01<\/p>\n
Speaking later to Sky Sports, Stokes confessed he was \u201cfrustrated and disappointed\u201d with how the curfew saga unfolded.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything\u2019s happened, I can\u2019t change what has happened, but what I can do is affect what we do going forward. How I conduct myself from here onwards is the only thing that I can control,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t control or change what happened in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cNow, what do I need to do as captain? Look forward. We\u2019ve got a massive week coming up here, so I have to get everyone\u2019s mind onto this game because at the end of the day, it\u2019s 1-1, we\u2019ve got one game left, and we need to win the series. I feel like I\u2019ve done a pretty good job of what I needed to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Stokes admitted the captaincy has taken its toll, he feels more liberated following the conclusion of the investigation. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf I were to sit here and say I\u2019ve done this job for four years and it\u2019s been no stress, it\u2019s been nothing that\u2019s come of it, you know that I\u2019ll be lying,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n
NOTTINGHAM, ENGLAND – JUNE 24: England captain Ben Stokes speaks to the media during for the first time since the nightclub saga.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a job that requires resilience. It\u2019s a job that requires time. It\u2019s a job that requires so much effort.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re never really able to switch off from it. You\u2019re always on. Over the last six months, I guess I could look back on whether I have thrown myself a bit too much into it? Have I given myself enough slack after Australia?<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe I was a little bit too hard on myself? Over the last couple of weeks, I\u2019ll be truthful: It could have almost all been taken away from you again, so just relax a bit and go out there and enjoy it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been a tough two weeks. But somehow, trying to find the positive has sort of allowed me to feel a little freer than I probably have done in times before this.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a little bit weird, I guess, hearing me saying I found a positive out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stokes not guaranteed captain’s spot | 01:15<\/p>\n
In a subsequent interview with the BBC, Stokes said the incident had led him to consider if he could continue to represent England just as a member of the team after four years as captain.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m 35 now and, even before this stuff all happened, I thought, \u2018Could I ever see myself playing for England and not being captain?\u2019. It\u2019s a question I\u2019ve never really been able to answer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love playing for England, I love being captain of this team and that\u2019s where I\u2019m at with everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stokes refused to be drawn on the vexed issue of whether players knew the curfew still applied the night after a match had finished, as well as during a game.<\/p>\n
But he was more forthcoming about his relationship with head coach Brendon McCullum, saying reports of a rift with the former New Zealand captain that first surfaced during the Ashes loss were wide of the mark.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a big misconception around me and Brendon,\u201d said Stokes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are genuinely very good mates.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe certainly haven\u2019t drifted apart, as there\u2019s a bit of speculation about. Not agreeing on everything shouldn\u2019t be seen as a divide between me and Brendon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stokes is set to get an enthusiastic reception in Nottingham and he acknowledged the public backing he had received during his brief international exile.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something I don\u2019t want overlooked, the love and support I felt with all the speculation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Returning captain Ben Stokes insisted he had been \u201cman enough\u201d to apologise to his England teammates after missing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":758247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-758246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=758246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/758247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=758246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=758246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=758246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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