{"id":830799,"date":"2026-07-29T07:46:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T07:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/830799\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T07:46:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T07:46:13","slug":"aussie-coach-andrew-mcdonald-unconvinced-ben-stokes-retirement-is-permanent-fascinating-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/830799\/","title":{"rendered":"Aussie coach Andrew McDonald unconvinced Ben Stokes retirement is permanent: \u2018Fascinating watch\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia coach Andrew McDonald believes England\u2019s new Test leader will try to convince Ben Stokes to come out of retirement for the Ashes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Less than 12 months out from cricket\u2019s most famous rivalry being renewed in England, Stokes decided to walk away from the international game.<\/p>\n

His bombshell retirement<\/a> \u2014 coming during the third and deciding Test against New Zealand \u2014 led to the end of Bazball, with Brendon McCullum sacked soon after as England\u2019s red-ball coach.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n

With McCullum only in charge of England\u2019s white-ball team, a new Test coach, with a different philosophy, could appeal to Stokes.<\/p>\n

Former England coach Andy Flower has already ruled himself out of contention to do the job again, while Australians Justin Langer and Tom Moody have been floated as possible replacements.<\/p>\n

Stokes has played two 50-over games for Durham since his final Test on June 29.<\/p>\n

\"AustraliaAustralia are doubtful whether Ben Stokes will remain retired ahead of next year\u2019s Ashes. Credit: AAP<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fairytale would be that he comes back out of retirement and takes on one more Ashes and builds a lot of hype on the way in,\u201d McDonald told SEN on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re looking at promoting that series, that\u2019s probably the angle that you would want, that he comes out of retirement.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, he\u2019s still got a lot of good cricket left in him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll be a fascinating watch.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhoever the new head coach that comes in potentially has a conversation with him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know why Ben left, I don\u2019t think there\u2019s been anything on the record around the definitive reason as to why.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe may have just called it a day on Test cricket and that\u2019s it, so there might be a full stop there.<\/p>\n

\u201cOr there might be an opportunity for that new head coach to potentially twist his arm and bring him back in.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if it ends now, he\u2019s had a wonderful career in terms of what he\u2019s brought to the game, his impact in certain innings and moments in time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will age pretty well for him to look back on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stokes played in just one winning Ashes series \u2014 back in 2015 \u2014 during his 122-Test career.<\/p>\n

England haven\u2019t held the urn since Australia secured a comprehensive 4-0 win during the 2017-18 summer.<\/p>\n

Australia will be battle-hardened before the Ashes begins at Trent Bridge on June 18, 2027.<\/p>\n

McDonald is preparing his experienced squad for two Top End Tests against Bangladesh, starting on August 13 in Darwin.<\/p>\n

In a bumper schedule, Australia will head to South Africa in October for the first time since Sandpapergate.<\/p>\n

This summer\u2019s home Tests will be against New Zealand, before jetting off to India for five matches for the Border-Gavaskar trophy.<\/p>\n

Australia will face England in a one-off Test before the Ashes, playing a 150th anniversary match at the MCG in March.<\/p>\n

McDonald was adamant Australia will continue picking the strongest XI for every Test during this busy period.<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia coach Andrew McDonald believes England\u2019s new Test leader will try to convince Ben Stokes to come out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":830800,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,1625,3863,588,85,33383],"class_list":["post-830799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-lifestyle","tag-sponsored-content","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-the-ashes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830799","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=830799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/830800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=830799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=830799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=830799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}