LONDON: England’s Ben Stokes announced his retirement from international cricket on Sunday. Following is a look back at the defining highs and lows of his career since he made his One-Day International and T20 international debuts in 2011 and his test debut in 2013.
A left-handed batter and right-arm pace bowler, he has scored more than 10,000 runs and taken more than 300 wickets over his career, and is regarded as one of England’s greatest ever all-rounders.
2013 – Ashes debut century Stokes’ 2013-14 Ashes century in Perth was a rare highlight on a tour to forget, showcasing his pugnacity.
2016 – Record-breaking knock in Cape Town Stokes’ 258 in Cape Town in 2016 was historic – the second-fastest of all time – and underlined his brutal hitting power. It remains his highest test score.
2016 – T20 World Cup final heartbreak He was handed the ball for the last over of the 2016 T20 World Cup final, with the West Indies needing 19 runs to win from 6 balls. Stokes’ first four balls were hit for sixes as the West Indies won the championship.
2017 – The Bristol Nightclub incident In September 2017 Stokes was arrested after a street brawl outside a nightclub in Bristol and charged with affray. He was dropped from the squad for the 2017-18 Australia tour, a series in which he had been expected to play a key role, and removed as England’s vice captain, which he had just been named. In 2018 Stokes was found not guilty but was fined by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) for bringing the game into disrepute.
2019 – World Cup glory His unbeaten 84 in the 2019 ICC World Cup Final helped take the match against New Zealand to a Super Over in which England triumphed, with Stokes winning the Man of the Match award.
2019 – Hero of Headingley Weeks later his sensational 135 not out at Headingley dragged England from the brink of defeat to victory in the third Ashes test in one of the team’s greatest wins.
2020-21 – Personal tragedy and mental health struggles In June 2021 Stokes announced an indefinite break from cricket to focus on his ‘mental wellbeing’. He later stated that the combination of feeling let down over the ECB’s handling of the Bristol nightclub incident, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the death of his father Ged Stokes in December 2020 due to brain cancer had led him to suffer from anxiety and panic attacks.
2022 – Test captaincy and “Bazball” Stokes, long-time deputy to Joe Root, was appointed as his successor. Alongside new coach Brendon McCullum, he ushered in a new era of hyper-aggressive red-ball cricket, dubbed “Bazball” by the press.
2022 – T20 World Cup winner He was part of the England team that won the 2019 Cricket World Cup and 2022 T20 World Cup.
2024 – Fastest test fifty by an Englishman Opening the batting in the second innings of the 3rd test against the West Indies at Edgbaston on 28 July, 2024, Stokes scored the fastest test half-century by an English player, reaching his 50 off just 24 balls, surpassing Ian Botham’s record set in 1981 by four deliveries.
