Ben Stokes has suffered a setback in his recovery from a toe injury with the England Test captain set to miss another week of Indian Premier League action.
With the Ashes looming, Stokes had been expected to return from injury for Chennai Super Kings in Friday’s game against Sunrisers Hyderabad, but sat out a fourth successive match. The 31-year-old has not played since April 3 and it is expected that he will miss his franchises’ next two fixtures as well.
The injury is to a toenail, which impacts both batting and bowling. However, an unintended positive of Stokes’ toe injury is that it is allowing him to rest his troublesome knee. The chronic issue limited his bowling and was sore while batting on the Test tour of New Zealand in February and he had a pain-killing injection to manage the injury.
Stokes is set to return from the IPL in time for England’s first Test of the summer, against Ireland at Lord’s on June 1.
Jofra Archer is also currently on the sidelines at the IPL, exercising an abundance of caution over a sore right elbow. He is expected to return in one of Mumbai Indians’ next two games but there is no official timeframe.
Seventeen months on from their latest winless tour of Australia (it is now 12 years since they last won a Test Down Under), England will begin their quest to regain the Ashes for the first time since 2017.
Ben Stokes’ side have an awful lot going for them, winning 10 of their first 12 Tests under his captaincy and also enjoy a superior record in the last five home series against their most venerable opponent, four of which were won and the last, in 2019, drawn.
(The Telegraph)