England’s Test captain, Ben Stokes, sustained a hamstring injury while playing for the Norther Superchargers in the Hundred. While the results of the scans are awaited, hamstring injuries are known to take at least a few weeks to heal. However, England do not have such an ample amount of time on their hands. The team is expected to make a trip to Sri Lanka for a three-match red-ball series in just a little more than a week. This means that Stokes’ return for the Sri Lankan tour can be scratched out as a possibility, as Michael Atherton also believes. While commentating during the game, the English cricketer-turned-commentator said,
“The way that he gripped the back of his leg looked like hamstring to me, which may well be a significant period out. But it might not be a structural problem so fingers crossed it’s that and that it’s not as bad as it initially looked and that he can play some part in the Test series. But it looks extremely unlikely that he’ll be able to play here in ten days’ time.”
The news practically shook the English management, with signs of panic on display for everyone to observe. After drawing the Ashes series and losing to India 4-1, the team finally seemed on the right path to the World Test Championship (WTC) final when they white-washed West Indies last month. The 33-year-old all-rounder himself also seemed to be all well and recovered from the knee surgery he underwent last year, which had him miss the T20 World Cup and Indian Premier League (IPL).
However, since then, things have been on a downward spiral. Earlier, the English opener, Zak Crawley, was ruled out of the Sri Lanka tour because of his fractured finger. This injury spree did not end here. Dillon Pennington, who was a part of the squad for the West Indies Test series, also picked an injury during the Hundred, sitting out the whole edition.
Following this news, the board also pulled Chris Woakes out of the hundred-ball tournament. Any more players getting injured would be the last thing England would want at this point.
While Ben Stokes’ injury is absolutely upsetting for England, it does not come as a surprise. The English all-rounder has been battling injuries for a few years now. In fact, his role as a bowler has been affected a lot, thanks to his injuries. That since 2022, he has only bowled 92 overs in 16 Test matches captures his struggle with injuries very aptly.
But even with limited contributions as a player, his captaincy is what would be missed the most, especially due to the fact that England don’t have a senior player to fill in for him, and the team is slated to play three away red-ball tours before the WTC final. It will be no less than a leap in the dark to let a youngster like Harry Brook or Ollie Pope lead the team. Such situations can kamikaze pretty badly, affecting both the team’s position as well as the youngster’s career.
But what needs to be done, needs to be done. After all, isn’t Bazball, the brand of cricket the English team very proudly flaunts, all about taking big risks and hoping to get the best out of them? While there is no denying that England’s final chances have taken a merciless beating, cricket is a game played till the last ball
