Former England captain Nasser Hussain expressed astonishment at Ben Stokes’ abrupt resignation from one-day international cricket.

The 31-year-old has retired from the 50-over format and will play his farewell match at home against South Africa tomorrow (July 19).

The all-rounder revealed that juggling all three forms and franchise cricket was challenging for him, thus he decided to step down from the playing XI.

Stokes has played 104 One-Day Internationals for England, amassing 2919 runs at an average of 39.44 and taking 74 wickets.

Ben Stokes Could Have Solely Played As A Batter In 50-Overs Cricket: Nasser Hussain

Nasser Hussain stated in his Daily Mail column that it is a shame Stokes had to make this decision owing to workload:

“Something had to give and it is a real shame it’s the one-day format because Stokes gave us that incredible day three years ago at Lord’s that no England fan will ever forget.

Nasser wrote about how the calender is jam-packed and that has prompted Stokes to retire from ODIs, “It is just jam-packed. The International Cricket Council keep adding their own tournaments and each board still seem to want a future tours programme full of as much bi-lateral cricket as possible.

“I do think I might have tried to convince him to just have a break, miss, some bilateral cricket and save him for World Cups or big tournaments. It could be argued that it would have been better for Ben to give up Twenty20 cricket and he may been torn but 50-over games are long days and take a lot out of you. He could easily have played solely as a batter in 50-over cricket, including in next year’s World Cup in India, Hussain concluded.

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