The England captain Ben Stokes has announced his retirement from international cricket, ending a glittering 15-year spell with the national team across all formats of the game.The 35-year-old will bring the curtain down on his career at the end of the third Test against New Zealand at Trent Bridge. Stokes, who made his debut for the white-ball teams in 2011 and first represented the Test side against Australia at Adelaide in December 2013, told his unsuspecting team-mates before play on the fourth day.The announcement of his retirement, delivered publicly before tea on the fourth day, prompted a standing ovation from the crowd at Trent Bridge as he began the 11th over a bowling spell. With typically dramatic timing he immediately had Zak Foulkes caught low down at second slip by Harry Brook to keep England’s faint chances in this match and series alive.“There’s something that I know is going to happen over the next two days, which is going to be… this is my last two days as your captain and my last few days representing England,” Stokes told his team-mates in the dressing room. “Reasons why can wait. But I’ve had many trips to the well before for this team, for you blokes, for people beforehand, and I’ve got one more trip to do.“And the only thing I ask, please, is can everyone please just do the same. We’ve got a lot of hard work still to do, and the only thing that I want is to be able to walk off at the end, off that field, regardless of the result, knowing that I’ve had this group of men and one lady (fielding coach Sarah Taylor) give everything for the last two days.“The only thing I want is just for everyone to give it not only for me, selfishly, but also for this team and everything else we’ve got going forward for you blokes. And all the emotion and that kind of stuff, please can we just wait for the end of this game? Because we’ve still got work to do.”The players stood and applauded his words.