England Test captain Ben Stokes shocked the cricket world on Sunday by announcing his decision not only to step down from the team’s leadership role but also to retire from international cricket altogether. Stokes’ decision comes just weeks after a London nightclub incident in which he and England teammate Gus Atkinson were involved in an altercation with a rugby player. Speculation regarding Stokes quitting international cricket had been rife, and it was on Day 3 of the third Test against New Zealand that the England skipper made the official announcement.
After the end of the day’s play, Stokes explained his decision, saying he had been contemplating his future over the last four to six weeks due to both on-field and off-field disappointments. He admitted to his wife that he did not have any fight left in him.
“Since the Ashes, it’s been really tough,” said Stokes, who was appointed England’s longest-format captain in 2022. “It’s the best thing I’ve ever been asked to do, to captain this team and captain this country. As good as it is, there are parts where it does drain you, and it does affect you in an emotional way.”
“Over the last five or six weeks, it felt like something else I had to try and overcome. I feel like I’ve been pretty good at that throughout my career-at overcoming on-field and off-field disappointment. But the emotional side of this since Australia… the way I described it to my wife is that I don’t actually think I have any more fight left in me to get over this, to be honest,” he said during a chat with Sky Sports after the end of the day’s play.
“I’m pretty happy and content with everything I’ve managed to do,” he said. “I’ve captained, I’m an Ashes winner, I’ve won a 50-over World Cup and a T20 World Cup. I’ve also had the opportunity to captain the team and play alongside some of the best players to have played the game.”
“I said to my wife ‘I don’t actually think I have anymore fight left in me to get over this to be honest.'”
Ben Stokes explains his decision to retire pic.twitter.com/NcLDpdJCy7
— Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) June 28, 2026
Stokes further explained that the more people he consulted about his situation, doubts, and internal dilemmas, the clearer it became that moving on was the correct decision.
“You go through that whole process, you speak to people who are close to you, and you start letting more and more out. The more I spoke to my wife and other people about it, the more I realised I was just stemming things further and further back,” he said.
“What we do is brutal-physically, mentally, and all of that. Even the stuff away from the game, the hard work you have to put in, is just getting a bit tiring these days. At thirty-five, I feel like I have to do so much physical work just to keep doing what I do out there. I had to ask myself, ‘Do I have that in me? Do I have that fight in me to keep doing that?’ because I know exactly what it takes to walk out there and play for this country.
“So, there are many things that have leaned me towards knowing that this is the right decision. There is the emotional side, the physical side, the mental side, and, yeah,” he concluded.
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