Ben Stokes has said that he was aware that he will end
his ODI retirement before to England’s defence of the 50-over World Cup in
India during the Ashes.
Stokes vowed that he would use his time off to treat
his persistent left knee ailment and “get sorted” as soon as possible
before the fifth Test at The Oval in July. However, after quitting ODI cricket
in July 2022, he was selected for England’s four-match series against New
Zealand and their tentative World Cup team two weeks later.
Asked on Wednesday night about his poker face while
answering questions at the time, Stokes said: “Obviously I’ve been asked a
lot about my knee over a long period of time, so I just said that to leave it.
I knew that I’d be playing in these games and potentially in the World Cup then
when I said that, but it was just the easiest thing to say that and put you
[the press] off the radar.”
Having walked out at 13 for 2 in the third over,
Stokes’ innings was the longest and biggest of his ODI career. He said that it
had provided a good reminder that 50 overs lasted a long time. “You have
way more time than you think,” he said. “In terms of game awareness
and game smartness, today was good for that.
“Today was good for me personally, just to get
familiarity again with how 50-over cricket goes. We started off and lost a few
quick wickets, then wanted to go out and put them under a bit of pressure.
There were a couple of times I had to check myself because I looked up and
there were still 23-24 overs left – that’s how one-day cricket can go.
“The thing that I came to realise throughout the
innings was how much time there actually is. There were a couple of stages
where I was scoring quite freely and felt like I wanted to keep on going and
going and going, but realising how many overs I had was the big thing for
me.”