NEW DELHI: England captain Ben Stokes has admitted he apologised to his teammates after returning for the series-deciding third Test against New Zealand cricket team. Stokes and fast bowler Gus Atkinson missed the second Test after being investigated for allegedly breaking the team’s midnight curfew following England’s win in the opening match. While they were cleared of any violent conduct, both received written warnings for breaching team rules.Speaking before the third Test at Trent Bridge, Stokes said addressing the squad was one of the first things he did after rejoining the team.“That was one of the first things I had to do as a captain,” Stokes told reporters.The England skipper acknowledged that the nightclub controversy affected more than just him. He said it overshadowed an important moment for several young players who made their Test debuts during the second match.“It affected Joe, it affected the squad, it affects the people outside the playing environment. It no doubt had an effect on the lads who were making their debut. That should have been all about them, but unfortunately a situation out of their control took precedence over their big day of making their debut for England in Test cricket,” he added.England, led by Joe Root in Stokes’ absence, lost the second Test by 253 runs as New Zealand levelled the series 1-1.Stokes said leadership means owning mistakes and apologising when necessary.“It would be stupid and naive for me not to acknowledge that and address that. It’s all fine and well everything being fine and dandy when it’s going well, but you need to take responsibility for things as well. If that’s you that needs to take that responsibility, you need to be big enough and man enough to be able to take that upon your shoulders, look everyone in the eye, and apologise how you need to apologise. That’s what I did,” he said.The 34-year-old also dismissed suggestions of a rift with England coach Brendon McCullum.“You don’t plan on going through something like this together in a professional environment. Me and Brendon were talking pretty much every day in the initial period.“Maybe in the future we’ll look back on this and go, this did bring us tighter. This rift, this drifting apart, we certainly haven’t drifted.”With the series tied at 1-1, Stokes said both he and Atkinson are now focused solely on helping England win the final Test.“The main thing about me being back, Gus being back, is for us to focus on the main objective, which is the cricket this week.“It’s 1-1 in the series, we’ve got one game left, and the importance of the result of this game is the one thing we need to concentrate on,” he concluded.
