‘Ab toh bs Thala ka comeback bacha hai’ – Fans react as Ben Stokes comes out of retirement to play in ODI World Cup 2023

All the teams which will be participating in the upcoming ODI World Cup 2023 have started preparing for the mega event. The tournament is set to be kicked off on October 5 with the 2019 World Cup finalists England and New Zealand clashing against each other in the tournament opener.

Meanwhile, a shocking news has come on August 16 as England’s Test team skipper and star allrounder Ben Stokes came out of his ODI retirement to participate in the ODI World Cup. A few weeks back, Moeen Ali also came out of his Test retirement and participated in the Ashes 2023 series. Many fans have reacted to the news and trolled Stokes as they believe that players these days are taking retirement as fun.

Ben Stokes to play as a batting specialist

Earlier, there were many reports already circulated on social media about Stokes’s comeback. Those reports also revealed that Stokes will be batting in the middle order for England’s ODI side. However, the English side will pick him up as a batting specialist as he is not fully fit to bowl all his 10 overs for the team. He did the same in the recently concluded Ashes series where he didn’t bowl much and played like a proper middle-order batter.

“Ben Stokes is prepared to make a sensational U-Turn and reverse his One-Day International retirement to help England’s World Cup defence in India this year, even if it means missing out on next season’s Indian Premier League. The England Test captain now appears willing to play World Cup if he is asked by white-ball captain Jos Buttler,” a source was quoted as saying by Sportstar.

“Stokes is likely to bat in the middle order for the England ODI side. Amid fears of how much bowling he could do, England are prepared to pick him as a specialist batsman, replicating the role he performed at stages during this summer’s Ashes series,” the source added.

Here’s how fans reacted:

https://twitter.com/Kohlity18/status/1691735789955436961?s=20

https://twitter.com/007KL_/status/1691735405627101448?s=20