Ben Stokes has apologised to his England team-mates for missing the second Test against New Zealand, while reiterating his desire to lead from the front as captain for this week's series decider in Nottingham.
Stokes, along with Gus Atkinson, have returned to the team after being stood down for The Kia Oval following an alleged breach of the unofficial team curfew and an incident in a Chelsea nightclub after the first Test. Investigations from the ECB and The Cricket Regulator came to nothing other than formal written warnings from the former.
England ended up losing the second Test by 253 runs, with Joe Root stepping into Stokes' shoes to lead four years after relinquishing the role. The absences of Stokes and Atkinson were compounded by a knee injury to Ollie Robinson and Jamie Smith going on paternity leave, meaning the England XI carried five changes after going 1-0 up at Lord's. Those changes included debuts for James Rew, Sonny Baker and Jordan Cox, all of whom have now been dropped.
Having arrived in Nottingham on Monday, Stokes addressed his team-mates on Tuesday in the home dressing-room at Trent Bridge, ahead of their afternoon training session. He was particularly apologetic about leaving them in the lurch last week, acknowledging the knock-on effect of ignoring the midnight curfew he had been instrumental in forging.
"Of course [I apologised]," Stokes said, speaking at his press conference on Wednesday. "That was one of the first things I had to do as a captain.
"You look at the situation, and it affects more than just myself. It affects a lot of people, it affected Joe, the squad, the people outside the playing environment. It no doubt had an effect on lads who were making their debut. That should have been all about them, but unfortunately a situation outside of their control took precedence over their big days, making their debut for England in Test cricket.
"It would be stupid and naive of me not to acknowledge and address that. It's something you do have to do, as someone who has responsibility of being a leader in a group. It's all fine and well, everything being fine and dandy when it's all going well, but you need to take responsibility for things as well.
"You need to be big enough and man enough to take that upon your shoulders, and look everyone who it has affected in the eye and apologise the way you need to apologise. That is something that I did."
Stokes felt particularly bad for putting Root in the position of leading with a weakened line-up. As vice-captain during Root's own tenure from 2017 to 2022, he was privy to the toll the job had taken on his mate. That was part of the reason Stokes took the role off Root in 2022.
The desire to liberate Root clearly paid off, with the Yorkshireman having scored 16 of his 41 Test centuries while averaging 55.07 in the four years since stepping down. However, familiar criticisms of Root's tactical nous resurfaced in the defeat at The Kia Oval, leaving the 35-year old with as many losses as wins (27) across his 65 matches in charge.
That Root was captaining despite Harry Brook being vice-captain was a consequence of Brook's previous brush with a nightclub bouncer in Wellington last November. Both managing director Rob Key and head coach Brendon McCullum decided it was best to insulate Brook in the circumstances.
"As his friend, it was hard to see the reaction that he got, and for me, that's something that hurt me because I'm very close with Joe. As I said, when something happens, it is obviously going to affect someone else, and seeing the effect that it had on Joe from public opinion was hard to see and read from my point of view, if that makes sense.
"That shouldn't take away the courage that Joe showed in taking that on that week. It would have been very, very easy for him to have said, 'Nah, I don't need this.' But yet again, he put the team first as he's done on multiple occasions. It was tough to watch from a few different angles, watching the guys lose and go through the emotions of losing the Test match. It's never nice because I know what that feels like, losing. But then seeing some of the reaction that Joe undeservedly got was something that hurts you, not only as a colleague but as a friend."
This is the third time Stokes has apologised to his dressing-room since becoming captain. He did so during the second Test against Pakistan in 2024 after losing his cool on the field after some costly errors. He then repeated that apology at the start of the following New Zealand tour, admitting he had been too tetchy after over-training in a bid to return fully from a hamstring tear.
This latest show of remorse is hoped to draw a line under the last few weeks and galvanise the team in their bid for a first series win since beating New Zealand at the end of 2024. It would also cool talk on the future of Stokes, McCullum and Key. The trio emerged unscathed from a review into the winter's 4-1 Ashes loss but already find themselves under immense pressure in the first men's international series of the summer.
"Yesterday (Tuesday) the important thing for me as captain of the team was making sure that I was letting the lads know that I am back properly as the captain of this team. I did need to obviously say a few things and acknowledge a few things to the team, and the team only, and I feel like I voiced those quite well to everyone.
"I feel I've also let them know that where my concentration is and it is thoroughly on what we need to do this week. Everyone in the dressing-room is fully aware of the responsibilities as them as players who got the call-up this week and I'm fully aware of the responsibilities of me as captain to lead this team in a pretty important game.
"Yes, we didn't get the result we wanted last week, but we can't change that. What we can effect and decide on is how we go about this week. We're desperate to get the results, I'm desperate to be the result. I think I've made a pretty good effort at making sure that the most important people know that, which is the team."