Right, well that's been a lot to take in. Where to start?

Be sure to read Stephan Shemilt's day four report from Trent Bridge... and his story on Ben Stokes remarkable retirement announcement.

If you missed any of the action you can watch Today at the Test on iPlayer.

We will be back tomorrow morning with all of the key moments from day five, including ball-by-ball commentary on TMS.

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More of England captain Ben Stokes speaking to Test Match Special:

You say there were a couple of moments, was one of them the blow in the face and was one what happened after the Lord’s Test Match, were those the two moments that made you think again?: “No there’s lots, I think there’s so much that people don’t see. The time and effort that you put in… the responsibilities in terms of like in the public. You know the months after Australia were tough. What I put myself through mentally and physically to try and build on to the summer then into the winter then obviously on to the 2027 Ashes as well and then I think that whole week at Lord’s for me was a very, very strange week. That was the start of all of this questioning."

Strange in what way Ben? "It just was, it just didn’t feel like it should have done considering I was out of the England bubble for six months, and then when you turn up and feeling a bit flat about everything and you’re getting a bit aggy about your responsibilities and you’re sort of just desperate to get into the game and it’s not how you should feel as an international player, as a captain. I’ve always loved and enjoyed the responsibilities that get put on your shoulders away from playing, believe it or not I do actually enjoy talking to you guys, the vast majority of the time. But even that felt like a chore last week, and I know it might sound silly but that’s part of how I’ve sort of ended up getting myself here in the process among other things.”

England captain Ben Stokes speaking to Test Match Special:

Why and why now?: "I think it’s a process that you go through with a lot of people who are close to you. Not only in terms of my close family but also people who I feel like I’ve built a very good relationship with, in terms of who I’ve played with. There’s one thing that someone who I spoke to said that when it happens like what does it feel like, and I said it basically just feels like it kicks you in the teeth, and you just sort of know. I’ve had a couple of those over the last probably five or six weeks. Yesterday, or the day before, I can’t remember to be honest it was when I was actually putting my pads on and waiting to bat, that was just sort of the the final nail in the coffin. I came into this week giving myself as much time to see if I could really see myself carrying on beyond the series and being back amongst it and the environment, I just sort of.. I can’t see it. Obviously with the emotion and the feeling that I got when I was getting my pads on ready to go out and bat in the first innings, those are ones that I’ve felt before and I was like right, ok, this is it. The one thing I didn’t want to be thinking about and feeling like and it's happening so that’s the final nail in the coffin, along with everything else.

How do you feel about it now?: "There’s lots of emotion, there’s sadness, there’s relief, there’s happiness, there’s excitement. I love cricket, I love the sport and that’s something I need to always feel like I need to be doing. Over the last six, 12 months, however long it may be, there’s been certain moments I feel like I haven’t loved it, and my time last week back with Durham there wasn’t a moment where I didn’t. And so being able to compare what it was like being back at my county, where everything sort of started with me and people who I grew up with and then comparing it to here where I’ve always loved, to not feel that sense of love and complete and utter enjoyment, like I have done for pretty much the hundred and whatever test matches before, you just sort of know, because being able to compare what it was like last week playing for Durham to this week and comparing it to all the other things this week it was tough to see me going on past this Test match."

Sir Alastair Cook
Ex-England captain on BBC Test Match Special

He is suggesting that the fire has just gone. The fact he has the carrot dangling there as a home Ashes captain and, knowing what I know, how much it means to him, it brings back some emotions and I hope he doesn't feel how I did.

This decision I am convinced it hasn't been taken lightly. It is such a hard job to hand back. Timing for me is almost irrelevant, for me this will never mark what Ben has done as an England cricketer because the timing will have been forgotten about.

I am not sure what I really feel because I think the whole day has been extraordinary.

More from Ben Stokes to Sky Sports on England's batting:"We'd spoken about it tactically because the wicket was deteriorating and how difficult the new ball was. And we just didn't want their bowlers to be able to settle. I likened it to going out there and just causing as much chaos as possible. Ducky said the energy helped him too because the field went back and yeah, we knew the new ball was the hardest part so it was a tactical decision. I know we're four down but we've knocked a big chunk out of the score already and we've got two class players out there for us."

"I'm really excited about what's going to happen going forward, I'm still planning to play for Durham and whatever other opportunities there are as well. But yeah, the crowd and the adrenaline does amazing things to you. That's the kind of thing that you really, really will miss."

Jonathan Agnew
BBC Chief Cricket Commentator on Test Match Special

I think a lot of the criticism off the back off the Ashes took a lot out of him. He was not himself at all.

They got it totally wrong and whether in hindsight he sat back and thought, 'how did we do that so wrong?'.

I assumed he wanted to put it right next summer and have a great chance of putting it right at home and being a Ashes winning captain, every captain wants to have that little tag at the end of their name but he will never have that now and that is a shame.

He looks as fit now than he ever has. He bowled brilliantly.

What I will remember Stokes for is his ability and his cold calculated way to chase down a target, he would cut all of the pressure and noise out and just focus entirely on that run chase. I have not seen any other batter who can do that like Ben.

Steven Finn
Former England fast bowler on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra

I was surprised because I think everyone saw that final carrot, the home Ashes series next summer as the natural end of this team together.

I think the last six months have been more fraught than we realise as observers of the game and even more will come out in wash potentially, but that is all speculation.

When you get over the initial shock, you think of Ben Stokes the cricketer, he was just the man for the moment. The moment in games, he would recognise it, if it was with bat or ball he would make sure he took the responsibility to do the job for the team.

He was just the most influential cricket player that I have ever played with.

More from Ben Stokes to Sky Sports: "I'm very excited about the next part of what I get to do. Going back to playing for my boyhood club Durham, I'm comparing this week to that week - right now I am buzzing but there have been moments this week that have been really tough and it just adds to everything and it makes it clear that I've made the right decision.

"Another thing I had was that over the past five, six week it was something else I felt I had to overcome and I've been pretty good at overcoming on-field and off-field disappointments over my career. But since coming back from Australia, the way I described it to my wife was that, I actually don't have any more fight left in me to do this.

"It literally did [hit me in the face]. I guess you go through the whole process of speaking to people close to you, and the more you speak the more spills out. It's brutal what we do, physically and mentally. It's all getting a bit tiring these days, at 35 I feel like I have got to do so much physical work to keep doing what I'm doing out there. So again, do I have that fight in me to keep doing that because I know how much it takes.

"There are so many things that have made me lean into this decision, the emotional side and the mental side.

"It was always going to be a tactical decision for me to open the batting because of the wicket and because of what we felt like we needed to do. When the crowd cheered after my wicket that was when I knew the news had gone out but yeah, it was electric out there. I give credit to the comms team for making that play out how it did."

Jonathan Agnew
BBC Chief Cricket Commentator on Test Match Special

It is interesting the way England have played today batting, that was Bazball again and some people might read that as a last hurrah.

This series is about a reset, getting back on the rails again after that awful Ashes campaign.

Will we be better off tomorrow when England lose this game and series? Are we better off then than before the series and the answer is no, they haven't been good at the off-field stuff.

New Zealand are a good side but they are not at full strength. The reset really was about Key and McCullum, we all thought that Stokes was the one banker that would remain and the other two had something to prove.

Michael Vaughan
Former England captain on BBC Test Match Special

I was completely shocked, I think back to Ben Stokes over his years, he has given us incredible moments, and will be greatly missed.

I guess great sportspeople do things in a different way and they think differently and have a different mindset to others. I want to know more, the timings, what made him decide.

If the incident in London tipped him over the edge to make the decision earlier, if he has been almost put into a place where he is angered with certain quarters of the ECB and he has made an impulsive decision, I will be disappointed. He might have just had enough and that it could just be that his fire might has just stopped, you need that to play cricket and that may have run out.

But I find it very strange that it happened a week after there were whispers and rumours that certain quarters of the ECB briefing certain elements that he should retire as the captain and a week later he is back in the team and gone on his own accord.

England captain Ben Stokes to Sky Sports on why he has chosen to retire now: "To be honest, the Lord's Test for me was something that brought back some kind of negative feelings about where I was in my career. I'd worked so hard since getting home [from Australia] to put things right, or at least that's what I thought I was doing. I put so much time and effort into doing that and I think I just burnt myself out.

"So when I got to Lord's, it was an interesting and strange feeling going into it. I've always thought that sometimes having too much time on my hands isn't the best thing for me. I spoke to so many people during this process and I tried, I gave myself every opportunity - to potentially think it was just a blip or that something was not quite right.

"But everyone says that moment kicks you straight in the face [when you know] and I thought it did a few weeks ago. But as I was putting my pads on yesterday getting ready to go out there, that was the nail in the coffin.

"There was a build-up to it, how things were during the whole week at Lord's and then another moment when I sat next to Joe in the dressing room. Obviously another scenario happened that added to it. It's never easy with me, is it? It was an unfortunate situation to be involved in over the past two weeks.

"But I absolutely love the game and being back at Durham, when I wasn't playing in the second Test, I found a new lease of life for the game but unfortunately I just couldn't get that feeling back this week.

"It might sound quite selfish but this decision is genuinely the best thing for me right now. I hope it's the best thing for the team going forward but I also hope it's what will allow me to keep loving this game that has given me so much."

England captain Ben Stokes to Sky Sports: "It's been an interesting four or five weeks, maybe six months in general. There are all kinds of emotions when this day comes - relief, happiness, excitement, sadness. Everything that you go through.

Since the Ashes: "It's been really tough. I'm sure a lot of captains can understand, I've spoken to Joe a lot and he gets it, he understands it.

"It's the best thing that I've ever been asked to do, captaining England. I'll never begrudge any moment where I've led the team and walked out with them. It is the greatest honour to have on your shoulders but there is also another side to it that people don't see, only those closest to you see it. My family, my wife, they see the bits where it does drain you and it does effect you negatively.

"But overall it has been four years or whatever it's been, I have loved every moment but some have been harder than others."

It's nearly 20 minutes since play came to an end, but there's still a substantial crowd in Trent Bridge paying tribute to Ben Stokes.

They're singing tributes to him as he's interviewed by television teams on the boundary.

Ben Stokes' retirement was made public at 15:25 BST.

Roughly four minutes later, with his first ball since the announcement, he had Zak Foulkes caught by Harry Brook.