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That defeat handed New Zealand their first victory on English soil in a three-Test series this century with the combination of another poor result and Stokes\u2019 departure leading to alarm bells ringing out in the Old Dart.<\/p>\n
England\u2019s Bazballers have won just two of their last eight Tests and those victories at the MCG and Lord\u2019s where dicey pitches turned the Boxing Day Test and the series opener against New Zealand into a lottery.<\/p>\n
Despite his diminishing returns with the bat, Stokes averaged 17.21 since the start of the Ashes last Australian summer, and the nightclub incident that resulted in him and Gus Atkinson missing the second Test at The Oval, the captain was not the person most English cricket fans wanted gone.<\/p>\n
So, now the calls for the heads of coach Brendon McCullum and managing director Rob Key to be placed on pikes are growing louder.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere must be change after what we\u2019ve seen here in terms of a cricketing sense now over a period of time,\u201d former England captain Michael Vaughan said on the BBC.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll be absolutely staggered if this leadership group is still together (after the New Zealand series).\u201d<\/p>\n
England’s Managing Director of Cricket Rob Key (R) and head coach Brendon McCullum (L) relax during team’s training session at The Gabba.Source: AFP<\/p>\n
The 2005 Ashes winning skipper then went harder in his column for The Telegraph<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI take no pleasure in doing this. I don\u2019t like calling for heads. At the end of the Ashes I tried very hard not to. But I can\u2019t cope with watching English cricket be so wasteful any more,\u201d he wrote. <\/p>\n \u201cAs a former captain I cannot stand by and watch us play like this against a New Zealand team who are down to their bare bones after injury and the retirement of Kane Williamson. This was a week of opportunity, and what they were always going to be judged on.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is so much skill and talent in the England changing room but it is not being harnessed at all. If all we have is to just keep going harder, and it\u2019s been exposed again, on the back of chaos off the field, which has been happening too regularly, then it is time for change.\u201d<\/p>\n READ MORE<\/p>\n \ufeff\u2018Bazball\u2019 cracks evident as Stokes strongly backs successor… but dodges big McCullum question<\/a><\/p>\n \ufeff\u2018Dumbfounded\u2019: Stokes exits in carnage as NZ inflict horror defeat and legend demands more scalps<\/a><\/p>\n \ufeff\u2018F*** you\u2019: Pointed question over Stokes\u2019 exit \u2018tantrum\u2019 as Baz faces calls for head<\/a><\/p>\n Stokes won’t comment on Baz future | 00:42<\/p>\n England were set 373 for victory by the Kiwis at Trent Bridge.<\/p>\n On the fourth evening, Stokes\u2019 side effectively threw the game away as they went full Bazball mode to reach the close at 4\/103 in just 15 overs.<\/p>\n Stokes promoted himself to open the batting.<\/p>\n He charged his first ball. <\/p>\n He tried to reverse ramp his second.<\/p>\n He got two sixes away – one straight back over the bowler\u2019s head and another by sweeping a seamer over square leg – before falling for 30 off 20 balls.<\/p>\n It was complete madness or as journalist Cameron Ponsonby wrote in The Independent<\/a> it \u201cwas fantastical, and at times farcical\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the moments when you let your inner cynic win, Stokes\u2019 main-character mantra can grate. The ninth over of a spell begins in 30 degree heat and you realise that ah, yes, Ben\u2019s putting on his show again. Everyone look at Ben,\u201d Ponsonby added. <\/p>\n Stokes retires from Test Cricket | 02:51<\/p>\n \u201cThe man who prides himself on going to the well, even if a tap\u2019s right there.\u201d<\/p>\n Or perhaps it was best described by Cricinfo\u2019s<\/a> Vithushan Ehantharajah in saying Stokes \u201cdecided to burn his church to the ground\u201d. <\/p>\n \u201cThe man who kept Ashes series alive, brought World Cups back from the brink and, four years ago, resuscitated English Test cricket decided that his final act was to bring it all down in a blaze,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n \u201cIt was utterly needless, entirely self-centred … and mind-meltingly stunning from a renegade allrounder who built his legacy out of astounding displays, but none quite like this.\u201d<\/p>\n Former England batter Mark Butcher was certainly playing the cynic on the Wisden Cricket Weekly podcast at the end of the match. <\/p>\n \u201cYou can hold two thoughts at once,\u201d the 71-Test left-hander said.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can be very sad that you will never get to see Ben Stokes play again. You can be very happy that you got the chance to see a player who could do the type of things that he could do to win matches single-handedly, to reverse inevitable tides in his favour. <\/p>\n \u201cAnd you can be watching a Test match that is very important for England, and go, you\u2019ve flushed it down the toilet.\u201d<\/p>\n While former England captain Andrew Strauss was also feeling hurt by what he saw.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not convinced that the whole thing was orchestrated the right way yesterday — it seems like a huge distraction to a team that was battling to avoid a series defeat and the cricket in the last session very much had an \u2018end of term\u2019 feel to it,\u201d the last England captain to win in Australia wrote on LinkedIn.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone has the right to bow out on their own terms, and no-one has earned that more than Ben, but announcing before or after the game seems like a more sensible approach. When you are in the middle of a match, the only thing that matters is the performance of the team.\u201d<\/p>\n England captain Ben Stokes with Joe Root and Shoaib Bashir after the 3rd Rothesay Test Match between England and New Zealand at Trent BridgeSource: Getty Images<\/p>\n But it was not Stokes\u2019 knock that drew the most outrage.<\/p>\n That came via Harry Brook, Stokes\u2019 vice-captain who endorsed to be his successor.<\/p>\n Brook slogged 21 off 9 balls before being caught at fine leg.<\/p>\n Vaughan was livid on commentary at the time for the BBC saying: \u201cthat is a pathetic Test match innings. Absolutely pathetic.\u201d<\/p>\n While Sky Sports picked up the New Zealanders mocking Brook\u2019s bizarre knock on the stump mic and asking: \u201cwhat are they doing?\u201d<\/p>\n If Brook, who is England\u2019s white-ball skipper, is to be made captain despite his indiscretion with a nightclub bouncer the night before an ODI in Wellington last year and the fact Joe Root stepped in for Stokes at The Oval earlier this series, Vaughan believes there must be another change in the dressing room.<\/p>\n \u201cBrook just cannot do that job if McCullum is still in charge. It is yin and yin. You cannot have that,\u201d Vaughan added in his column. <\/p>\n \u201cI am more than happy for Brook to do the job with someone else, but not McCullum. It would be chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n England’s Harry Brook walks back to the pavilion having lost his wicket for 21 runs on the fourth day of the third Test.Source: AFP<\/p>\n Stokes backs Brook as captain | 01:00<\/p>\n McCullum survived the axe despite England\u2019s 4-1 Ashes series loss debacle.<\/p>\n They squandered a big lead to lose inside two days in Perth before their bowlers wilted in the heat in Brisbane, Adelaide and Sydney, while their batters also tossed away their wickets at crucial moments.<\/p>\n The size of their defeats have also been considerable.<\/p>\n Eight wickets in Perth and Brisbane, 83 runs in Adelaide and five wickets in Sydney.<\/p>\n While New Zealand handed them thrashings at The Oval (253 runs) and Trent Bridge (160).<\/p>\n When pondering McCullum\u2019s recent record, The Guardian\u2019s<\/a> Ali Martin could not help but draw comparisons to an Australian coach who suffered a whirlwind tenure in Nottingham.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter a season of four managers across the road at the City Ground, there is no question what (Nottingham Forest owner) Evangelos Marinakis would do with a management team producing the kind of results England\u2019s supporters have endured of late. Seven defeats in nine is scarcely different to Ange Postecoglou\u2019s short-lived run of six in eight,\u201d Martin wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cWhether English cricket\u2019s two Richards, Gould and Thompson, similarly reach for the button that opens the trapdoor to the shark pool remains to be seen. Brendon McCullum, the head coach, said he felt backed to continue and his \u00adappetite remains strong. But it does feel like he and the team \u00addirector, Rob Key, are teetering.\u201d<\/p>\n Many believe the way England\u2019s top order batted on the fourth evening was a message to the hierarchy.<\/p>\n \u201cEngland needed to bat patiently \u2013 and long. Instead, after the captain\u2019s retirement had been packaged by the ECB in video form for social media feasting, they indulged themselves with one last Bazball fling when they had four and a half sessions to at least try to play for a draw,\u201d The Observer\u2019s<\/a> Paul Hayward wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cThe crowd loved it. And then they didn\u2019t. It began to dawn that England were having some sort of wild send-off for the hero of the 2019 World Cup. While the match was still going on. To call it a mutiny might be too strong but unmistakably a middle-finger had been raised.\u201d<\/p>\n But former England captain Nasser Hussain seemed less convinced that change will take place before the first Test against Pakistan at Headingley on August 19.<\/p>\n McCullum is contracted to lead the Test and white ball teams until the end of next year\u2019s Ashes series.<\/p>\n Hussain seemed resigned to McCullum staying in charge for another 12 months.<\/p>\n Baz: “It’s more about the celebration” | 00:23<\/p>\n \u201cEngland have lost seven out of nine Test matches. You can\u2019t hide behind that,\u201d Nasser Hussain told Sky Sports Cricket.<\/p>\n \u201cBrendon always comes across very positive and full of energy. I\u2019d like a little bit more honesty at times.<\/p>\n \u201cLike the last Test at The Oval, where he was asked about the plans – that one hour on the third day for the tail – and he said the plans were OK. They weren\u2019t. They got the plans wrong.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was asked about the batting line-up [at Trent Bridge], and he said it\u2019s all about, \u2018when the ball was hard, that\u2019s a good time to score\u2019. Well, actually, when the ball was hard was the difficult time to bat.<\/p>\n \u201cEngland needed someone to play like Daryl Mitchell and grind out a score, so that today when it was a bit easier – as Jamie Smith showed – you can go out and smash it.\u201d<\/p>\n Those sort of calls for greater patience, maturity and game awareness with the bat were almost daily catch cries during the Ashes.<\/p>\n It was a stark contrast to the early years of Bazball when Stokes and McCullum\u2019s team were hailed for the all out attack approach with the bat.<\/p>\n The situation they find themselves in now has proven that was a little more than a sugar hit.<\/p>\n There were impressive series wins at home against South Africa and New Zealand as well as a series whitewash on some of the flattest batting pitches ever seen in Pakistan.<\/p>\n They also drew and won two series in New Zealand.<\/p>\n But Stokes\u2019 men failed to defeat either Australia or India at home, while being beaten 4-1 away to their fellow members of the big three.<\/p>\n Plus, they were dusted in Pakistan on turning surfaces last year.<\/p>\n ‘My last two days representing England’ | 02:04<\/p>\n They have not come close to making a World Test Championship final and sit seventh with four wins from 13 Tests in the current cycle.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel a little bit disappointed and deflated,\u201d Hussain added. <\/p>\n \u201cFor everything that English cricket has going for it, we are way down the World Test Championship table.<\/p>\n \u201cThe irony is, England have got a lot of New Zealanders in the backroom staff, and it\u2019s actually New Zealand who are giving us the template on how you should prepare, play, behave and act as a Test nation.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got to learn from what we\u2019ve just seen in the last three Tests on the field. If you want to get better, sometimes look at the opposition and what they\u2019re doing well and learn from them.\u201d<\/p>\n While the focus appears to mainly be on the backroom staff, England are likely to have a very different looking team in the first Test against Australia at Edgbaston next June.<\/p>\n Aside from the captaincy debate, Stokes\u2019 departure leaves \u201ca huge vacuum in the England team that will be impossible to fill\u201d, according to Strauss.<\/p>\n Many in England are quick to point to Australia\u2019s ageing team, but barring injury, Pat Cummins\u2019 side is set to be far more settled coming into the Ashes.<\/p>\n The players Stokes and McCullum have backed to fill the void left by recently retired players have failed to nail down there spots.<\/p>\n Ollie Pope and Zak Crawley were dumped from the top order after the tour of Australia.<\/p>\n While their bowling attack is a revolving door and Stokes, who has battled injury issues, has been their most reliable bowler in the past year – taking 42 wickets at 24.07 in that time.<\/p>\n Ollie Robinson, who was recalled and won man of the match honours at Lord\u2019s but was unsighted for the remainder of the New Zealand series, and Jofra Archer will now take on the role of the senior statesman of the attack despite both struggling with fitness at times.<\/p>\n \u201cMore broadly, Stokes\u2019 departure means England have lost another world-class player, continuing a three-year procession through the exit door,\u201d the BBC\u2019s<\/a> Stephan Shemilt wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cAnderson, Stuart Broad, Chris Woakes and Moeen Ali have all retired. Jonny Bairstow and Mark Wood will probably never play Test cricket again. Joe Root is the only active England Test player to know what it is like to win an Ashes series, the sole survivor of the school of former coach Andy Flower.\u201d<\/p>\n Stokes: “A lot of emotion obviously” | 00:26<\/p>\n As Australian fans know all too well as the country became all-rounder obsessed off the back of Andrew Flintoff\u2019s 2005 Ashes campaign, the absence of a world-class all-rounder leaves a gaping hole in a team.<\/p>\n The way to counter it is with a world-class spinner who can hold up an end.<\/p>\n England bridged the four-year gap between Flintoff\u2019s retirement and Stokes\u2019 debut with Graeme Swann.<\/p>\n They do not have the same luxury this time around.<\/p>\n \u201cUnless Sam Curran makes a Test comeback, it may be that \u00adEngland have to look to a spin-bowling all\u2011rounder for balance, with \u00adplayers such as Rehan Ahmed, Liam \u00adPatterson\u2011White and James Coles all options. Shoaib Bashir, a promising cricketer, but blooded optimistically, will now struggle to play without Stokes,\u201d The Guardian\u2019s Ali Martin added.<\/p>\n \u201cAlthough what England have lost goes beyond just balance. Suddenly a team that Stokes called out for being a bit meek in Australia has lost its only aggressor; the one player who gave them snarl in the field and meant opposition sides could never relax while he was still at the crease.\u201d<\/p>\n Stokes speaks openly after retirement | 01:37<\/p>\n Stokes\u2019 absence is a cricketer will be felt more with time.<\/p>\n He has never been a big numbers player, although his numbers sit behind Jacques Kallis and Sir Garfield Sobers in terms of Test all-rounders.<\/p>\n Instead, he has been a moments player.<\/p>\n A man for the big occasion.<\/p>\n Australians still have nightmares about Headingley in 2019.<\/p>\n New Zealanders of the World Cup final at Lord\u2019s roughly a month earlier.<\/p>\n A player who is rough around the edges and came up clutch when his nation needed him is why England fans revere Stokes along with Flintoff and Sir Ian Botham.<\/p>\n As The Guardian\u2019s<\/a> Vic Marks pointed out Stokes is \u201ca cricketer capable of grabbing the headlines during a football World Cup\u201d.<\/p>\n A young fan holds up a sign in support of England captain Ben Stokes, after the 3rd Rothesay Test Match between England and New Zealand at Trent BridgeSource: Getty Images<\/p>\n Stokes happy to be on watching duties | 00:47<\/p>\n Many think this may not be the end.<\/p>\n In post-match interviews he shut down speculation of an Ashes comeback.<\/p>\n But many in England are holding out hope that the then 36-year-old will be locking horns with the Australians yet again.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone can accept Stokes is finished as a captain but, after a rest, some time away from this set-up, there is no reason why he cannot reverse his retirement decision. He did it with white-ball cricket a few years ago to play one more 50-over World Cup,\u201d The Telegraph\u2019s<\/a> chief cricket correspondent Nick Hoult wrote at Trent Bridge.<\/p>\n \u201cHis relationship with McCullum on a professional level may well be dead, but it matters less as a player with no decision-making responsibility. <\/p>\n \u201cSurely he will be itching to get going again when Australia are back. <\/p>\n \u201cI will be in a hospitality box watching it somewhere,\u201d he said. Let\u2019s hope not.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former England captains and the nation\u2019s leading cricket journalists are concerned that Ben Stokes has left their men\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":769183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-769182","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\/769182","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=769182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/769183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=769182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=769182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=769182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}