With the World Cup 2023 set to begin on October 5, England All-rounder Ben Stokes would likely miss the first match against New Zealand due to a hip niggle.
Ben Stokes to miss World Cup opener
The defending champions England is scheduled to play in the first match of the ICC Men’s ODI World Cup against Blackcaps at Narendra Modi Stadium. The opening match is a replica of the previous edition’s finals where England beat New Zealand to lift the trophy for the first time.
On this occasion, England captain Jos Buttler confirmed that Ben Stokes suffered from a hip niggle during the practice session on October 4. The all-rounder who retired from ODI last year reversed his decision and was named in England’s Provisional squad for the World Cup 2023.
He was part of the squad where England played a four-match ODI series against New Zealand recently. He was impressive during the third ODI match where he scored 182 runs leading the side to victory at Oval.
He was rested during the warmup matches against India which was ultimately cancelled due to rain. He was also sidelined from the squad for the warmup match against Bangladesh.
However, Buttler said on the pre-match press conference that Ben Stokes could possibly be part of the playing 11 if his niggle gets better by Wednesday evening or Thursday morning.
“He has got a slight niggle in his hip. Fingers crossed that it’ll be good news for us. He is working hard with the physios and we will know more when the guys arrive for training today. We will make the right call: if he is not fit to play, he is not fit to play. He is definitely not ruled out and if we have to take risks, we will take it in the latter half of the tournament,” said Buttler.
“Always looks like he’s carrying an injury. Never misses a game. I don’t know what to make of it. Someone with a hunger for the game. Always nice to see him in any set-up, the extent of his knee injury; looks more for show than really anything.
“I haven’t seen him miss anything because of it. I think if it was a concern, they’d probably ask him to stop playing Test cricket and preserve him in some sort of way,” said Lance Klusner about Stokes.
“Ben Stokes is a proper good player but there’s ten other guys in that England team that are pretty decent so I don’t think there’s any real reason to be too concerned about one player. Scoring runs consistently in a place like India and the team that can do that will go deep into the competition,” he concluded.
If he fails to recover within the time, Harry Brook will be replacing Stokes in the squad with Bairstow and Malan will be the possible opening pair. They will be having Adil Rashid lead spinners with Moeen Ali and Liam Livingstone to assist him.
Jos Buttler will be covered with the trio pacers of Chris Woakes, Mark Wood and Reece Topley in the opening encounter at Ahmedabad. England will be playing their second match against Bangladesh on October 10 at HPCA stadium.
