Jonny Bairstow makes his decision clear to play all formats ‘as long as possible’

Right after the shocking announcement Ben Stokes made on Monday of his retirement from ODI cricket, the retirement discussion becomes the talk of every cricketing towns in the world.

With any believes he took the right decision, other who are not performing well barring reputation should also follow Stokes path to give chance to the deserving one. While many are criticizing as took the retirement at the age of just 31, a near same age when some of the other big players like Michael Hussey, Saeed Ajmal and Suryakumar Yadav started their international careers.

What Ben Stokes said after taking retirement from ODI cricket?

However, Ben Stokes cleared the air in his statement itself that he took this decision due to give some rest to his body as it has become ‘unsustainable’ for the recently appointed test captain to play all three formats, and to provide a chance to better player.

Later, he urged with the authorities to stop thinking of players as “cars”.

With Stokes’ retirement, Bairstow is now the lone cricketer on the England team who routinely plays in all three forms. He was a part of the three-match Test series against New Zealand in June.

He then took part in the one-off and six white-ball matches against India as well (three T20Is and as many ODIs) and is currently representing England in an ODI series against South Africa at home.

Jonny Bairstow‘s decision on retirement?

Bairstow made his decision clear to play all three formats for as long as possible, while accepting how the gruelling schedule can affect the players.

 “I don’t know if it’s good or bad that I’m one of the last all-format players,” Bairstow told Sky Sports on Friday.

“But you know me well enough now: I’ll be trying to play all of them for as long as possible. I’ll be going all out for as long as I can. There might come a time when you do have to make a decision for different reasons, but that’s part and parcel of life and cricket, but in the near future I can’t see me making a choice because I’m loving being part of all three squads. They’re all individual squads and they’re great to be a part of. It’s exciting. You go into a new one and you’ve got a freshness and new faces and energy around them, because you’re going into a new format,” he added.

England are currently playing 3-match ODI series against South Africa, which levels at 1-1 with the decider game to be played on July 24 at Headingly, Leeds.