Ben Stokes insists the late-night incident in Bristol and its subsequent fall-out “could be the best thing that has happened to me”.

Of course, Cumbrian Stokes would rather the episode he was engaged in at 2.30am in September 2017, then found himself on trial for affray before being cleared of all charges, had not happened at all.

But it did and Cockermouth’s all-rounder Stokes, 27, said: “People have asked whether the whole episode makes you appreciate what you have even more. But the answer is no, because I’ve always known how special it is.

"But it must be a subconscious thing that I was that close to my career ending and being thrown away just like that, maybe that is it. Thinking all this is going to be taken away from me. That might be the thing that has changed the way I do things.

"It sounds silly, but could Bristol have been the best thing that could have happened to me? Who knows, it could have been something else, but just in terms of my way of thinking.”

Stokes told The Mirror: “Nothing good happens after midnight.

“I still go out, but if you mean going ‘out out’? I don’t go ‘out out’ any more.”