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England all-rounder Ben Stokes opened up on a conversation he had with limited-overs skipper Jos Buttler after his failure in the first ODI against India last week. The left-hander, who was dismissed for a golden duck in the game at The Oval, has stated that ended up telling Buttler that he almost felt “useless”.
In a move that took the cricket world by surprise, Stokes announced his retirement from ODI cricket on Monday (July 18). The ongoing first one-dayer against South Africa in Durham will be his last match in this format for England.
Speaking ahead of the game, the 2019 World Cup winner opened up on his decision to quit the 50-over format to concentrate on Tests and T20Is. Admitting that he always knew a point would come when he would have to give up one of the formats, the 31-year-old told Sky Sports:
“After the first ODI it hit me in the face and I had a quick chat with Jos (Buttler) after the game. We had five minutes together and he told me we’ve got a lot of cricket coming up and that I should look after myself."
He added:
"It was a nice thing to hear, but when the went away after that and had had five minutes to myself, I honestly told him I almost felt a bit useless. It wasn't a nice feeling knowing that I’ve got to look after myself, the captain’s trying to look after me. In international cricket you can’t be doing that."
Stokes added that the schedule and everything that is expected of the players in the modern game was “unsustainable” for him personally. He stated that knowing he couldn’t give his 100 percent made the decision to quit one-dayers easier for him. The all-rounder elaborated:
“One person I spoke to said to me: 'if there's any doubt, there's no doubt'. This England shirt deserves 100% from whoever wears it and I didn't like the feeling of not being able to contribute in the way I wanted.
"And the feeling of stopping someone else progressing in this format for England. When I thought long and hard and realized I couldn't do that in all three formats... it was made easy knowing that I can't go out there and give it my all.”
Stokes had a poor one-day series against India, registering scores of 0, 21 and 27. He bowled only three overs in the entire series and went wicketless.
“In T20 cricket, I bowl 2 or 3 overs here and there” - Stokes on decision to quit ODIs
Explaining the decision to quit one-dayers and not T20Is, the England cricketer said that the difference in workload between the two formats was the clinching factor. Admitting that it wasn’t an easy choice, he elaborated:
“Now being the captain of the Test team and how much cricket is coming up, I have to look after my body because I want to play as long as I possibly can. I look at how Jimmy (Anderson) and Broady's (Broad) careers have gone since they stopped playing white-ball cricket. I want to play 140, 150 Test matches for England.”
Stokes concluded:
“It's come earlier than I would have liked but in T20 cricket I bowl 2 or 3 overs here and there. Hopefully when I'm 35, 36 I can look back on this decision and say I'm happy with it.”
Heading into his last one-dayer, Stokes had featured in 104 matches in the 50-over format, scoring 2919 runs and claiming 74 wickets.
