In advance of the World Cup, Ben Stokes said, “I’m retired.”

Ben Stokes, the red-ball captain of England, made the announcement that he would stop playing in ODIs in 2022 in order to manage his workload. The ODI World Cup is set to start on October 5 in India, so there was some hope that the player may play again before then.

Notably, Ben Stokes has been a force to be reckoned with for England in recent years, helping the side win the ODI World Cup in 2019 and the T20 World Cup in 2022, and his inclusion would have only boosted England’s prospects in the 2023 mega event. The all-rounder underlined, however, that he has no plans to play ODI cricket again and that, instead, he will take a vacation following the Ashes.

I’ve retired. After this match the fifth Ashes Test I’m going on vacation, and that’s all I’m thinking about,” Ben Stokes was reported as saying by the ICC.

In addition, Ben Stokes confessed that his inability to bowl in the ongoing Ashes after the second Test owing to a long-standing knee problem prevents him from performing to his full potential as an all-rounder. The Durham all-rounder said that after the Ashes, he will have a chance to “serious conversations” with the specialists to figure out the issue and be able to bowl without “having to worry about my knee.”

It’s something I want to resolve, of course. When I’ve seen specialists and other stuff like that, there has always been cricket nearby. We just got started because it has been doable. But I believe that is a wonderful opportunity to have some serious discussions with medical professionals about what I might be able to do to land a job where I can bowl without worrying about my knee. In our free time, we will be able to talk about those things, he remarked.

After failing to win the Ashes at home this year because to the forced draw in Manchester due to the rain, ben Stokes also expressed his desire to travel to Australia and do so in 2025.

“Obviously, given how this series has played out and how close we came, you have to wonder if we will have a better chance this time around in Australia than we have in the past. It would be lovely to travel to Australia in 2025 and have a strong chance of winning, hopefully. To say that I’ve won it twice would be good. The Ashes are clearly surrounded by a lot of cricket, but we’ll just have to wait until 2025 to find out,” said Stokes.