Last Updated on 2 years by Charbel Coorey
Cricket News: England hopeful Ben Stokes will come out of ODI retirement | Will Ben Stokes come out of ODI retirement?
England’s limited overs head coach Matthew Mott has expressed hopes that star all-rounder Ben Stokes will reverse his decision to retire from One Day Internationals (ODIs). Mott said he told Stokes he can always ‘unretire’ to help the team defend the ODI World Cup crown in India next year.
“He’s a three-dimensional player and he has so much to offer. In this team he was the glue – I think we have a lot of guys who can do extraordinary things but he was the player you knew that if he was in you’d win the game,” Mott was quoted in a report by Cricbuzz.
He added, “When he spoke to me about his ODI retirement one of the first things I said was that I’d back any decision he made, but I said to him he didn’t necessarily have to retire, he could just not play 50-overs for a while. And I said: ‘You could always unretire.’”
England not giving up Stokes returning to ODIs after retirement earlier in 2022
Stokes had retired from ODI cricket earlier this year citing the incredibly tight-packed international schedule.
The all-rounder was England’s linchpin in their ODI World Cup victory back in 2019. The southpaw had scored 84 unbeaten runs whilst chasing in the final and also starred in the subsequent Super Over to take England home. He again notched a critical half-century and helped his side sail through a tricky chase against Pakistan in the final of the T20 World Cup at Melbourne on Sunday.
Time and again, Stokes has shown that he is the man for the big occasion. Players with such iron-clad resolve and temperament are worth their weight in gold especially in such high-pressure tournaments. On that backdrop, the English team management will be basking their hopes on their Test skipper to return to the ODI format sometime in the near future. Mott echoed similar thoughts.
“I’ll let him dust off today. He’s his own man and he’ll make his own decisions. He’ll do what’s right for English cricket and he always has. That was part of his decision to retire from ODI cricket. He didn’t think he could give it his all and credit to him for making that decision because he’s such a special commodity for English cricket. We want what’s best for the whole system as well,” Mott mentioned.
England’s men cricket’s managing director Rob Key appreciated the work that Stokes is doing in Test cricket. He quipped that nothing can be ruled out yet, speaking on the 31-year-old’s possible return to the 50-over format. Stokes has scored 2924 runs in 105 ODIs at an average and strike rate of 38.98 and 95.08 including three centuries and 21 half-centuries. He also picked 74 wickets at an economy rate of 6.05.
