On Tuesday, Ben Stokes played his last ODI for England at the home ground Durham. England must’ve tried to give him a good send-off. However, South Africa outplayed them. This decision came as a shock to everyone as Stokes has been doing well in his career. He is recently appointed as the England team’s Test captain. However, he opened up about this decision. Ben Stokes says “we are not cars” and emphasizes that the demanding schedule makes it challenging to play all formats.
Announcing his ODI retirement Stokes wrote, “Three formats are just unsustainable for me now. Not only do I feel that my body is letting me down because of the schedule and what is expected of us, but I also feel that I am taking the place of another player who can give Jos and the rest of the team their all. It’s time for someone else to progress as a cricketer and make incredible memories like I have over the past 11 years.” Moreover, he wished Buttler, Matthew Motts, and other teammates who have been performing well.
“We are not cars” Ben Stokes criticizes unsustainable cricket schedule
“We are not cars. You can’t just fill us up and we’ll go out there and be ready to be fuelled up again. We had a test series and then the one-day team had a series going on at the same time – that was a bit silly. I just feel like there is too much cricket rammed in for people to play all three formats now. It is a lot harder than it used to be. I look back to when I used to do all three and it didn’t feel like it was as jam-packed and all that. The more cricket that is played, the better for the sport, but you want a product that is of the highest quality. You want the best players to be playing as much as you possibly can, all the time, and it isn’t just me or us. You see it all around the world now where teams are having to rest some players in a certain series so they feel like they are getting a break.”
Ben Stokes
Stokes ODI career
Stokes played a total of 105 One-Day Internationals before deciding to retire. In 105 games he scored 2924 runs at a strike rate of 95.09. In addition, he scored 3 centuries with the highest score of 102.
