MARK BUTCHER
Last hurrah: Stokes promoted himself to open in his final innings for England indeed
We heard a whisper maybe half an hour before the news was announced, and none of us could believe it. We actually thought it could be a wind-up, but then the official statement dropped at 3.25pm – Ben Stokes is retiring from international cricket. Nobody saw it coming.
Then we have this extraordinary moment where the crowd in Nottingham hears the news, they stand up to applaud Stokes as he gets to the end of his mark, and he takes a wicket with his very next ball. Stokes explodes. T...
