England all-rounder Ben Stokes mentioned he knew through the Ashes collection that he was going to reverse his resolution to retire from one-day cricket in time for subsequent month’s World Cup, and that he had dominated out a comeback to throw the media off the scent.
The talismanic 32-year-old, the architect of England’s maiden 50-overs World Cup triumph in 2019, introduced his shock ODI retirement final 12 months citing his heavy workload.
As hypothesis that he may return to the format for England’s title defence swirled through the Ashes in June and July, Stokes quashed discuss of a doable return to the ODI squad, citing a nagging knee damage.
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Nonetheless, he returned to the England set-up final month forward of their World Cup title defence in India, and gave one other instance of his explosive batting within the third ODI towards New Zealand on Wednesday, smashing 182 off 124 balls.
“Clearly I’ve been requested rather a lot about my knee over an extended time frame, so I simply mentioned that to depart it,” Stokes mentioned of his earlier feedback about the opportunity of an ODI return.
“I knew that I’d be enjoying in these video games and doubtlessly within the World Cup then once I mentioned that, nevertheless it was simply the best factor to say that and put you (the media) off the radar.”
England have agreed to play him as a specialist batter, ideally at quantity 4, and he mentioned the readability about his function helped him bat with extra freedom.
“That is the primary time that I’ve been clear in my thoughts that that’s the one factor I can concentrate on,” Stokes mentioned.
“I feel over the past 18 months, daily has been, ‘will I bowl, will I not bowl?’ Now, I do know that I can simply concentrate on that … Having that readability in my head contributes to that.”
England tackle New Zealand within the closing ODI at Lord’s on Friday. They lead the four-match collection 2-1.