Stokes set for competitive return after recovering from injuries
England skipper Ben Stokes is set to return to competitive cricket during Durham’s County Championship match against Worcestershire.
England skipper Ben Stokes is set to return to competitive cricket during Durham’s County Championship match against Worcestershire.
England Test skipper Ben Stokes is targeting a return to competitive cricket next month after recovering from a facial injury sustained during a training session in February, an incident he admits could have been far more serious.
England skipper Ben Stokes has made it clear that his working relationship with head coach Brendon McCullum remains firmly intact, even if the way they operate together continues to evolve following England’s difficult The Ashes tour of Australia.
Ben Stokes has been out of cricketing action since leaving the field due to an adductor injury during the fifth and final Ashes Test against Australia in Sydney last month.
England captain Ben Stokes labelled the Boxing Day Test win at the MCG a “pretty special feeling” after his side finally brought an end to a 15-year wait for a Test victory on Australian soil.
Stokes plans to bat himself at six and is hoping that prospective players that harbour aspirations of batting in England's recently frail top and middle-order will give him plenty to ponder by scoring a bulk of runs at the county level ahead of the first Test of the summer against the Kiwis at Lord's on June 2.
Stokes' 16 maximums set a Championship record, surpassing those of Australia's Andrew Symonds (1995) and England's Graham Napier (2011) for Gloucestershire and Essex, respectively.
The two ageing warhorses were strangely left out of England's three-Test tour of the Caribbean earlier this year, with selectors instead opting to give more opportunities to the next generation of seam bowlers.
With Ben Stokes named as the new Test captain on Thursday and Rob Key appointed as the managing director of men's cricket, Anderson and his new ball partner Stuart Broad still have a chance at the red cherry.
While England has the "right personnel in charge," Pietersen believes the entire cricket structure needs a "shake-up" to get the team out of its "doom-and-gloom" situation.
