Ben Stokes retirement: England captain’s unconventional exit fitting for a rebellious but brilliant player – Jonathan Agnew

Ben Stokes has always been his own man. He has been rebellious in the past. It was never traditional. Therefore, his departure was not traditional.

Everyone assumed he would lead England to the Ashes next year and would want to be an Ashes-winning captain.

I wonder if he’ll be preoccupied with what might have happened if he watched it on TV next summer.

I don’t know if he will one day regret his decision to withdraw from international cricket during the third Test against New Zealand.

We don’t really know what’s been going on in the last few days or weeks.

We understand that he did not respond to the question of whether he felt the support of the England and Wales Cricket Board regarding what happened in the London nightclub incident.

So we’ll have to wait and see if he says anything about it when he holds his final press conference.

There was a lot of talk about Stokes’ future as he was unavailable for the second Test at the Oval but I don’t think anyone really, truly thought he would give up the captaincy.

I think people were very surprised that people chose to announce this in the middle of a game, in the middle of a series; This is quite unusual.

He chose to go, but he was the one least likely to go. He has a very strong will and this is his decision.

At the start of the series, if you look at the positions of director of cricket Rob Key, head coach Brendon McCullum and Stokes, it was Ben Stokes who looked the least vulnerable and was most likely to remain in charge.

Will Key and McCullum stay? The same doubts remain.

This was supposed to be a reset. They should have beaten New Zealand.

There were shenanigans and disciplinary problems off the field. The great reset didn’t actually happen. If things had gone more smoothly they might have won the series and you would have been more positive about the future, but that didn’t happen.

I don’t think Stokes leaving will disappoint others.

There are still questions about Key’s stance, especially given that the details of the curfew have not been clarified and that is his job.