New Delhi: Ben Stokes, the captain of the England Test team, has stated he has no intention of changing his mind about his decision to forego playing in this year's ICC Men's Cricket World Cup and instead would use the break to explore surgery for his persistent knee issue.
Many believed that Stokes, 32, would come out of ODI retirement to assist his team try and duplicate their efforts in the shortest format and defend their 50-over World Cup crown in India after helping England win the ICC Men's T20 World Cup in Australia last year.
But after the fifth and final Ashes Test at The Oval that commences on Thursday, Stokes stated he was still done playing 50-over cricket and was looking forward to a break.
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"I'm retired," Stokes reiterated.
"I'm going on holiday after this game and that's as far as I'm thinking."
Stokes suffered a knee injury during England's January tour of New Zealand and was only able to participate in two games for Chennai Super Kings in the current Indian Premier League.
Although the gifted all-rounder has already made some outstanding individual batsmanship during the Ashes series, he did not bowl during the two most recent Tests at Headingley and Old Trafford and will once again not be a bowling factor in south London this week.
Stokes suffered a knee injury during England's January tour of New Zealand and was only able to participate in two games for Chennai Super Kings in the current Indian Premier League.
With England's next Test series not until they travel to India to play Rohit Sharma's team at the start of 2024, Stokes acknowledged that the fact that he cannot bowl due to his knee issue is forcing him to contemplate getting surgery after the Ashes.
"It's something I obviously want to get sorted," Stokes said of his injury.
"The times in which I've seen specialists and stuff like that there has been cricket around. So, as it's been manageable, we've just cracked on.
"But I think that is a good time to have some serious conversations with medics around what is potentially something I could do to get a role in which I can bowl without having to worry about my knee. Those are conversations we will be able to have in that time off."
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Stokes suffered a knee injury during England's January tour of New Zealand and was only able to participate in two games for Chennai Super Kings in the current Indian Premier League.
Stokes acknowledged that he is nearing the conclusion of his career rather than the beginning, but he stated he still wants to stick around to play in the upcoming Ashes series in Australia at the end of 2025.
"How this series has gone and how close we were, it does make you think when we go to Australia, do we have a better chance than the last few times we've been there," Stokes pondered.
"Hopefully, it'd be nice to go out to Australia in 2025 and have a good chance of winning."
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