ENGLAND captain Ben Stokes admits he is managing “the back end of my career” after choosing to skip the Indian Premier League and prioritise his time in international cricket.

Stokes sat out the lucrative T20 tournament earlier this year in a bid to ease his workload following long-running knee issues but was expected to throw his name into the hat for the 2025 edition.

Instead, he was a notable absentee as the franchises spent money elsewhere – including sizeable paydays for fellow Englishmen Jos Butter, Jofra Archer and Phil Salt.