Recently retired England captain Ben Stokes has confirmed that he will not be making any international comeback for the national team, discarding the murmurs and wishful thinking of many in the fraternity. Interestingly, he has moved on to the next chapter in his life — coaching. In fact, he hopes to coach the national team some day.
Appearing on the For the Love of Cricket podcast alongside Jos Butter, Stokes said, "I’m doing my level three coaching now while I’m still playing, because I want, when the day comes that I’m not playing any more, I’d love to be able to have all that stuff signed off and done."
“I know what I want to do in terms of staying within the game, which is to be a coach. And would I love to be coach of England one day? Absolutely. I just really like the idea of being, again, like, in some form of leadership away from playing,” Stokes added, keeping the door open for him to return to England set up in a different role.
This clarification comes days after the England team director suggested the possibility of Stokes returning to the set up for the Ashes against Australia. “I wouldn’t be surprised – anything’s possible with Ben,” Key had said. However, Stokes had shut the door for himself in as many words when Buttler asked if he had definitely retired. "Definitely," replied the former England all-rounder.
Earlier this summer, Stokes had announced in the middle of the third Test against New Zealand that he would retire at the end of the match. He walked off the field with over 10000 runs across formats and more than 300 wickets. His announcement came in the middle of a controversy about being involved in a bar fight along with Gus Atkinson following the first Test win at Lord's. He missed the second game before coming back and retiring in the third as England lost the series 2-1.
