Ben Stokes leaves England Cricket Team to rot in T20 World Cup 2024 after being humiliated by India in the Test series

England’s red-ball captain Ben Stokes, who played a major part in helping the Three Lions claim 2 major white-ball titles in 2019 and 2022, has pulled himself out of the ICC T20 World Cup 2024. While this might come as a shocker for the English team’s possibility of defending the T20 WC title they won in 2022, Stokes has reasoned that he wants to keep his fitness intact, specifically to bowl more in England’s upcoming red-ball assignments.

Ben Stokes, in an official statement, claimed that he is deliberately opting out of the T20 WC in the USA and West Indies to focus on his all-round skills for the future. For well over a year, Stokes was strictly asked to now bowl due to his troubling knee injury but during the recent 5-match Test series in India, the all-rounder had bowled 5 overs in the 5th Test at Dharamshala. The Europeans had suffered an innings and 64-runs loss in that match and went back home after a 4-1 drubbing to the hands of a new-look Indian side under Rohit Sharma’s captaincy.

While his team’s performance after the win in the 1st Test at Hyderabad was indeed questionable, Ben Stokes’ own performance was equally poor. In a series like this where a captain is expected to lead from the front, the 2019 50-over World Cup winner went inside a shell and didn’t come out until the time came to fly back to England.

Ben Stokes provides an official statement

Ben Stokes, who had also pulled himself out of IPL 2024 last year, must have spoken to the apex English board before arriving at this decision. Earlier today, the ECB had taken to its official website to provide the confirmation that Stokes doesn’t want to play any part in the World cup to focus on bettering his bowling for 3-match Test series’ against West Indies and Sri-Lanka.

The 32-year-old himself provided a statement that he is keen on fulfilling his all-round duties across formats and that he doesn’t mind sacrificing playing the IPL and the T20 WC.

“I’m working hard and focusing on building my bowling fitness back up to fulfill a full role as an all-rounder in all formats of cricket. Opting out of the IPL and the World Cup will hopefully be a sacrifice that allows me to be the all-rounder I want to be for the foreseeable future.” – Ben Stokes said via the English Cricket Board. 

What next for Ben Stokes?

Ben Stokes’ decision to pull out from this year’s only ICC event might also see him not participate in England’s 4-match T20Is series at home against Pakistan which begins 2 weeks before the T20 World cup. He will be sitting and practicing the entire month of June and prepare along with Brendon McCullum for the red-ball assignments against West Indies and Sri-Lanka from 10th July to 10th of September.

After that, the Three Lions will be playing a 3-match T20I series as well as a 5-match ODI series on home soil against World Champions Australia later on in September.