Ben Stokes Leaves Cricket Fans In Shock After His Sudden Retirement From ODI Cricket
Ben Stokes (Image Source: Twitter)
Global cricket fans were left in shock as England’s top-class all-rounder, Benjamin Andrew Stokes announced his retirement from the 50-over format on 18 July 2022. Just one day after England’s loss to India in the 50-over series, Stokes took his official Twitter account to announce his decision.
He shared a picture of himself with the 2019 World Cup winning trophy and he wrote a long statement, mentioning that he will play his last ODI game for England on 19 July 2022 against South Africa at Durham’s Riverside ground.
Here is the shared post by Ben Stokes:
https://twitter.com/benstokes38/status/1548992324939616258?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
Ben Stokes was the player of the match for England in the 2019 World Cup final
Speaking about his shared post, he wrote that this was a very tough decision to take for him. But, he felt that playing three formats has become unsustainable for his body. Hence, he decided to quit this format as he will be unable to give his 100% to his teammates. Stokes added that he will look to completely focus on the longest format of the game as the captain of the side and that influenced him to take such a hard decision in his career.
This decision will help him to focus on the T20Is and Tests completely. He also wished good luck to skipper Jos Buttler, other players, staff, and coach, Matthew Mott for all the upcoming success in the near future. Stokes also shared his privilege to represent his country in this format in 104 matches till now as he expects to don the ODI jersey for the last time on 19 July 2022. His top achievement came when he was the player of the match for England in the 2019 World Cup final. He played the match-winning knock of 84* runs while chasing the target of 242 runs.
Speaking of his career, Ben Stokes played 104 matches till now where he scored 2919 runs at an average of 39.44 while he picked up 74 wickets also. Ahead of the next year’s 50-over World Cup in India, England might get it tough to replace a star all-rounder like him with an immediate effect.
