England captain Ben Stokes announced a shock retirement from international cricket with his side still in the middle of a Test match against New Zealand at Nottingham on Sunday.

In a video published by the team on their social media accounts where he said, “Reasons can wait.”

“There’s something that I know is going to happen over the next two days. These are my last two days as your captain and my last two days representing England. Reasons can wait. I’ve had many trips to the well before for this team, for you blokes, for people beforehand, and I’ve got one more trip to do,” Stokes said.

“The only thing that I ask, please, is can everyone please just do the same? We’ve got a lot of hard work still to do, and the only thing that I want is to be able to walk off the end of that field regardless of the result, knowing that I’ve had this group of men, and one lady, give everything for the last two days, and the only thing I want is just for everyone to give it, not only for me selfishly, but also for this team, and everything else that we’ve got going forward for you blokes. All the taps on the arse (sic), all the emotion, all that kind of stuff, please can we just wait for the end of this game? Because we’ve still got shitload more work to do. And I’ve got a shitload more work to do that I want to do, so… Let’s just go out there and f**king give absolutely everything for another two days,” he added.

Published on Jun 28, 2026