Stokes to retire after Test, England face series defeat at Trent Bridge

Ben Stokes told his England team-mates and the England and Wales Cricket Board on Sunday morning that the third Test at Trent Bridge would be his last, and then walked out to open the batting in a chase that had already become close to impossible. England reached stumps on 103-4, still 270 runs short of New Zealand’s target of 373, with a series defeat now looming at the end of Stokes’s four-year spell as Test captain and 15-year international career.

The call came after New Zealand had declared on 288-9 in their second innings, Daryl Mitchell unbeaten on a century after opening centuries from Tom Latham and Devon Conway had given the tourists command of the match. England, who had won only two of their previous nine Tests before this decider for the Crowe-Thorpe Trophy, needed a demanding fourth-innings chase to avoid a result that would be their first home series defeat in three or more Tests since 2012.

Stokes took the new ball in hand and the opening role in the order. He made 30 from 20 balls in his final Test innings, before falling to Zak Foulkes, and later struck with his first ball after news of his retirement had spread around Trent Bridge, dismissing Foulkes via Harry Brook at second slip.

Stokes said in the dressing room that he wanted his team-mates to “give absolutely everything” over the final two days, and players and coaching staff gave him a standing ovation. Stuart Broad, in the crowd and on commentary, called him a “talisman of English cricket” and “a complete match-winner,” while ECB chair Richard Thompson praised Stokes as one of England’s greatest ever cricketers and cited his World Cup-winning contributions in 2019 and 2022, along with his Ashes heroics at Headingley.

Stokes missed the second Test at The Oval while the ECB and the Cricket Regulator investigated his conduct after England’s win at Lord’s; he was later cleared of any serious wrongdoing.