Cricket Twitter Reactions

'Retirement is joke nowadays' - Fans react as England Test skipper Ben Stokes comes out of retirement for ODI World Cup 2023

After retiring from the ODI cricket, Ben Stokes was active in the Test and T20I format for England, including the T20 World Cup 2022.

author-image
Daniel S
New Update
Ben Stokes

In what is a shocking piece of news for cricket fans and the cricketing fraternity, the veteran England all-rounder and Test skipper Ben Stokes has taken back his retirement from the ODI format. Stokes took this decision to make himself available for England in light of the upcoming ODI World Cup 2023 in India, which will be held in October and November.

Notably, it was on July 18, 2022, when Ben Stokes announced his retirement from the ODI cricket and he made his last appearance for England in the Chester-le-Street ODI against South Africa on July 19, 2022. Since then, he has not appeared in the 50-over format for the Three Lions; although his heroic performance in the T20 World Cup 2022 final guided England to their second title win in the history of the tournament.

Now, just after his comeback to ODI cricket, Stokes has been added to the 15-men squad of the Jos Buttler-led English side. This squad has been picked for the upcoming ODI series against New Zealand.

Here’s a look at England’s squad for ODIs against New Zealand:

Jos Buttler (C), Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali, Gus Atkinson, Jonny Bairstow (WK), Sam Curran, Liam Livingstone, David Malan, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Reece Topley, David Willey, Mark Wood, and Chris Woakes.

Apart from Ben Stokes’ inclusion in the squad for ODIs against New Zealand, another important development for the team is that the star batter Harry Brook has been dropped from this squad. Notably, Stokes was the Player of the Match of the 2019 World Cup final for his heroics with the bat against  New Zealand. His remarkable unbeaten knock of 84 runs helped England to stay alive in contention till the last ball of the match.

The decision of unretiring from ODI cricket also drew mixed reactions from cricket fans across the world. Some of the fans appreciated him for deciding to comeback for his side whereas others criticized him for not taking the decision to retire seriously.

Here’s how fans reacted:

Cricket News ODI World Cup ODI World Cup 2023 Ben Stokes England Cricket Board