England Test captain Ben Stokes has said he apologised to his teammates after being dropped for the second Test for disciplinary reasons. England ultimately lost to New Zealand, and a returning Stokes admitted he had been “man enough” to own up to his mistake, while also acknowledging this is the “highest amount of pressure” he and head coach Brendon McCullum have faced as captain and head coach.Stokes and fast bowler Gus Atkinson were dropped from the second Test against New Zealand after breaking a midnight curfew during an incident at a London nightclub, following England’s series-opening win at Lord’s.In their absence, a stand-in England side led by Joe Root suffered a 253-run thrashing at The Oval, as New Zealand levelled the series at 1-1 heading into the Nottingham finale at Trent Bridge, which begins on Thursday.When asked if he had apologised to his teammates, Stokes said: “Yeah, of course. That was one of the first things I had to do as a captain. You look at a situation and it obviously affects more than just myself. It affects a lot of people, Joe Root, the squad, people outside of the playing environment. It no doubt had an effect on people making their debuts. That should have been all about them, but unfortunately a situation outside of their control took precedent over their big days. It would be stupid and naive of me not to acknowledge and address that.”“It’s something you do have to do as someone who has the responsibility of being the leader of the group. It’s fine when it’s all going well, but you do need to take responsibility for things. If it’s on you, you need to be big enough and man enough to take it on your shoulders and look everyone in the eye that was affected and apologise. That’s something that I did,” he added.Stokes and Atkinson were cleared by an independent Cricket Regulator after finding “insufficient evidence” against the pair.A parallel investigation by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) also exonerated them of any wrongdoing in an altercation involving a Saracens rugby union player, though they were issued written conduct warnings for contravening “specific contractual obligations.”Stay updated with the latest sports news across Cricket, Football, Chess, and more. Catch all the action with real-time live cricket score updates and in-depth coverage of ongoing matches.