(Cricket news) Ben Stokes on Monday announced his decision to retire from One Day International cricket. England's first ODI against South Africa will be his final match in this format at his home ground in Durham. Stokes' decision was shocking to say the least as there is an ODI World Cup next year and Stokes is just 31 years old. The all-rounder's recent appointment as Test captain was definitely one of the reasons for the decision. Stokes has been an impact player for England in this format and his shoes will be very big to fill. Now that Eoin Morgan and Ben Stokes have both retired from the format, England will start a new era with a couple of fresh faces in the format.
In his statement Stokes clearly mentioned that he can't handle the workload of all three formats. He was recently made the captain of the Test side so that will be his priority. He also chose not to participate in the IPL to play county cricket which clearly shows that his preference is Test cricket. He was rested for the the T20Is against India and now he isn't a part of the T20Is against South Africa as well. He has made the choice to prefer T20Is over ODIs which is a little surprising. Usually a player retires from white ball cricket or red ball cricket or just T20Is. This may be the new thing where players don't prioritise One Days and it could lead to the death of the format. At the same time it also depends from player to player as when Virat Kohli had to give up captaincy of one format, he chose T20Is while Quinton de Kock retired from Test cricket when he wanted to manage his workload.
Stokes has been incredible for England in ODIs and he is one of the biggest reasons why England won the 2019 World Cup. He has scored 2,871 and picked up 74 wickets in 101 matches. Workload management is a very tricky thing these days due to the amount of cricket that is played. Stokes' plays as a batting all-rounder in all formats so he doesn't have to bowl 10 overs in ODIs anymore. Hence, it is more of the mental workload which has caused Stokes to make this decision. Now it's time for someone else to step in and fill his shoes in the England ODI team.
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