India, June 29 -- Even indefatigable spirits can be broken, even warriors sometimes have had enough, it would appear. Nearly a decade and a half after first gracing the world stage, Ben Stokes, the superman, finally decided enough was enough, with a dramatic, stunning announcement even as the deciding Test against New Zealand was poised on a knife's edge.

England's Test captain, that powerful, compelling, unignorable sweeping force of nature, exits the international arena, perhaps shattered by the brouhaha over the last few weeks of his nocturnal dalliance, along with Gus Atkinson, after his team had overcome the Kiwis at the Oval earlier this month. By breaking a curfew that he himself had been part of the group that had brought into ef...