After captain Ben Stokes’s international career ended with a crushing 160-run loss to New Zealand in the third Test at Trent Bridge, Michael Vaughan suggested there needs to be more change at the top of English cricket.
With the victory on Monday, New Zealand won the series 2-1 and condemned England to their seventh loss in nine Test matches. Stokes’ announcement of his retirement from the international match on Sunday’s fourth day in Nottingham, when the series was still up for grabs, shocked both fans and commentators.
After opening the innings, the 35-year-old all-rounder—typically a middle-order batsman—holed out. Before Sunday’s close, England lost three more wickets in a frantic attempt to reach a challenging total of 373, putting them well on their approach to their first series loss at home in three or more Test matches since 2012.
After a 1-4 Ashes series defeat in Australia in January, England bosses supported head coach Brendon McCullum and managing director Rob Key to spearhead a team makeover.
However, former England captain Vaughan, who guided his country to victory in the Ashes in 2005, told BBC: “There must be change after what we’ve seen here in terms of a cricketing sense now over a period of time. I’ll be absolutely staggered if this leadership group is still together (after the New Zealand series).”
England fast bowler Jofra Archer stated that it will be challenging to no longer have fellow 2019 World Cup winner Stokes as a teammate.
“It’s going to take some getting used to. Not just as a captain but as a friend. Someone who you can always go to at mid-off or mid-on, wherever he is you can always bounce ideas off him. He’s going to be a big miss,” said Archer at the presentation ceremony.
The timing of Stokes’ departure surprised former England captain Andrew Strauss.
“Like many people I was dumbfounded yesterday (Sunday) when the whispers started coming out that Ben Stokes was about to announce his retirement,” Strauss said on LinkedIn.
Strauss, hailed Stokes as one of England’s “genuine greats”but added: “I’m not convinced that the whole thing was orchestrated the right way yesterday –- it seems like a huge distraction to a team that was battling to avoid a series defeat and the cricket in the last session very much had an ‘end of term’ feel to it.
“Everyone has the right to bow out on their own terms, and no-one has earned that more than Ben, but announcing before or after the game seems like a more sensible approach. When you are in the middle of a match, the only thing that matters is the performance of the team.
“It is a small gripe in the greater scheme of things. English cricket will be far worse (and less interesting!) without Ben involved… There will be a huge vacuum in the England team that will be impossible to fill.”
