Ben Stokes alongside coach McCullum [Twitter]
The influx of franchise cricket has burdened players, who are already engaged in playing international cricket across formats for their respective nations. Several players have preferred the freelancing route, to secure their future, while others have given up one format to prolong their careers.
England's Test skipper, Ben Stokes is from the latter, retiring from One-Day International (ODI) cricket, in a bid to sustain his body in Tests and T20s. Stokes, who will captain England today against Ireland in their one-off Test at Lord's, before taking on Australia in The Ashes 2023, spoke about co-existing of both red-ball and T20 cricket together.
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As quoted by Cricket.com, Stokes explained how T20s have benefited cricket, with Test being the pinnacle of the sport.
Here's what Stokes said
"I've always been a huge advocate of the Test format. The whole landscape and the whole game of cricket is literally just changing in front of everyone's eyes so quickly. Look at what T20 has done for the game in general, the amount of attraction it's brought, new fans, new players.
It has brought into playing cricket regardless of the format and also what T20 has been able to bring in terms of Test cricket. So, I don't see a world where T20 and Tests aren't being played in the future."
Interestingly, Ireland have rested their pacer Joshua Little for the one-off Test citing workload management, after the bowler was involved in the Indian Premier League (IPL) playing for runners-up Gujarat Titans (GT).
The first Ashes Test starts June 16 at Edgbaston.
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