London, August 15: Retired opener Marcus Trescothick has ruled himself out of returning for the decisive fifth Ashes Test.
Trescothick, who played his last Test three years ago because of his battles with a stress-related illness, admitted he even suffered a nightmare about playing at The Oval. He believes it would be wrong to return and a ”traumatic dream” convinced him about that.
”I’d be a liar if I said the prospect of playing at The Oval hadn’t occupied my mind a lot,” the Somerset batsman told the ‘Bristol Evening Post’. ”In fact, that has been the case to such an extent that the other day I woke up at 6.30am from a terrible dream. ”There is a nightmare a lot of cricketers experience that they can’t get their pads on when they are due in to bat.
”My dream was a variation of that. I couldn’t get my England kit out of my bag! ”The other players were waiting for me on the pitch to do a team photo so I was in a right panic. I woke up in a cold sweat. ”Perhaps that told me something. It gives me a massive kick that I am still thought good enough to come back and play at international level, but I’ve gone too far down the line in battling my stress problems to change my mind about now ending my England career.” Trescothick was initially tempted by the prospect of a one-off return but concluded he didn’t have the hunger for the contest.
—Agencies