Australia’s head coach Andrew McDonald is not ruling out Ben Stokes’ possible Ashes return after Test retirement. McDonald reckons Stokes can come out of retirement ahead of the next Ashes as he has still got some fuel left in his tank.
Stokes decided to retire after he broke the night curfew following England’s win in the opening Test match against the Blackcaps and then had an altercation in a nightclub.
In his last Test innings against New Zealand, Stokes was promoted to open and scored 30 runs off 20 balls before getting caught. Stokes scored 7273 runs in 122 Test matches at an average of 34.47 and scalped 252 wickets at an average of 30.99.
“I think the fairytale would be that he comes back out of retirement and takes on one more Ashes and builds a lot of hype on the way in,” Australia’s coach told radio station SEN.
“If you’re looking at promoting that series, that’s probably the angle that you would want, that he comes out of retirement. To me, he’s still got a lot of good cricket left in him. It’ll be a fascinating watch. I think that whoever the new head coach that comes in potentially has a conversation with him.”
The Australia coach added that they are not aware of the reason behind Stokes’ sudden Test retirement and the new head coach might want to convince him to return.
“We don’t know why Ben left, I don’t think there’s been anything on the record around the definitive reason as to why. He may have just called it a day on Test cricket and that’s it, so there might be a full stop there. Or there might be an opportunity for that new head coach to potentially twist his arm and bring him back in.”
McDonald praised Stokes for a successful career and hailed his impactful performances in big matches for England.
“But if it ends now, he’s had a wonderful career in terms of what he’s brought to the game, his impact in certain innings and moments in time. It will age pretty well for him to look back on,” he concluded.
Stokes always gave his all on the field, and he can be really proud of his career.
