Visibly distressed England captain Ben Stokes suffered a recurrence of a hamstring injury on Monday while bowling during the third Test against New Zealand in Hamilton.
Watch NZ vs England three-Test series LIVE on Kayo | New to Kayo? Get your first month for just $1. Limited time offer.
Stokes, who suffered a torn hamstring on the same left leg in August, was to undergo a scan on Monday night or Tuesday morning after hobbling off midway through the afternoon session clutching his leg.
ESPN Cricinfo confirmed the 33-year-old will bat in the fourth innings of the Test at Seddon Park, where England have been set a nominal target of 658 to win, but the extent of the injury will be further assessed after the final Test of the series is done.
England were 18-2 at stumps on day three, and batting coach Marcus Trescothick said it was “tough” for Stokes to accept he was injured again.
“It’s the same hamstring as he’s had before,” he told reporters. Stokes’ 23 overs in New Zealand’s first innings was the most he has bowled in a single day in his 110-Test career.
Stokes was bowling his 13th over of the second innings when he pulled up with a grimace, clutching his leg in his follow-through before hobbling to the dressing room. He did not return.
Trescothick said: “He’s been going so well and he’s been bowling and playing the role that he does, as an all-rounder and captain.
“He’s shown signs during the course of this series of getting back to fitness.” Stokes missed the entire three-Test home series against Sri Lanka in August-September and was only deemed fit enough to join the October series in Pakistan for the second Test after tearing his hamstring.
His 66.3 overs in this series is the most he has sent down in a series as captain.
He pulled up with a back problem during the first Test in Christchurch but there had been no doubt about his availability for the two remaining matches.
“We didn’t see it coming. You don’t see any signs of these things generally, they just happen,” Trescothick said.
“He’s pretty realistic about these things when they happen. It’s always tough at the start when you realise you’re injured again.
“He works dramatically well at what he does with his fitness to get into that shape where he can be.
“We just have to look at how we can manage it.”
Stokes’ latest setback has called into question how long he can continue to shoulder a heavy bowling load, while also being one of his side’s most important batters and their leader.
It is a lot to ask of an ageing body and with five-Test series’ at home against India and away in Australia on the horizon, many in the England cricket community are calling for Stokes to ease off on the bowling front.
The UK Telegraph’s chief cricket writer Scyld Berry believes that England’s captain must put his ego to the side for the betterment of his career, and the team’s success.
“Ben Stokes wants to be Superman, and he has played the part of Superman when winning the Headingley Test off his own bat or the 50-over World Cup final of 2019, or even the T20 World Cup final of 2022. But nobody is Superman all the time, especially a pace bowler at the age of 33,” Berry said.
“Stokes injured his left hamstring while bowling his 37th over of the third Test – his 37th – in a dead-rubber game, with World Test Championship points as irrelevant to England as usual. Herein lay the downfall of everyone who tries to be a superhero: hubris.
“The context is that England have won the Ashes in Australia once since 1987. It takes time to assemble a strong and dependable batting line-up and a battery of fast bowlers. Stokes is integral to both, in addition to being captain.
“Poor Marcus Trescothick, the batting coach wheeled out to defend the England captain, who said: “We didn’t see it coming.” That was blind loyalty. For a pace bowler of Stokes’s age and medical history, to be bowling such long spells only one outcome: injury.
“It was the most senseless and wasteful injury since Stokes last pulled his hamstring, which ruled him completely out of the home Test series against Sri Lanka and partially out of the one in Pakistan. The Ashes mean nothing to the England and Wales Cricket Board compared with flogging off the Hundred. So Stokes had to pull on a shirt for Northern Superchargers last August instead of resting between the West Indies and Sri Lanka home series.”
‘Can’t do that!’ – Duckett embarrassed | 00:44
Former England batter and Sky Sports pundit Ian Ward believes that Stokes becoming a specialist batter does not solve any problems, however.
“There are two problems with that [Stokes being a specialist batter]. One is that England need him to balance the side and the second, bigger problem, is that Stokes will want to play his part as a full all-rounder,” Ward told Sky Sports News.
“That’s what makes these all-rounders so great, they want to be involved in every aspect of the game.
“Stokes at the minute is batting, bowling, influential in the field and the captain. If you look at Ian Botham, he would have got into the side as a batter or a bowler, but if he could only do one, it would have taken away from his general aura and I think that’s the same with Stokes.”
Williamson’s century puts NZ in control | 01:24
Former England captain Sir Alistair Cook spoke on TNT Sports about his views on the Stokes situation, declaring that England’s chances of winning the Ashes in Australia next summer take a hammer blow if their skipper is not fit enough to play as an all-rounder.
“His involvement in the Ashes in 12 months’ time – England won’t win the Ashes without a fully fit Ben Stokes,” Cook said.
“Balance, what he does to the side, the importance of his bowling. Bowling rhythm, you can’t just come back from injuries and it happens straight away. You need to keep on bowling.
“He’s bowled a lot of overs, I think he was doing that for himself mentally, to say I can bowl 25 overs in a day. He did it, and it’s almost the final hurdle and it’s gone again.
“It looks like a fairly serious hamstring injury, it’s not cramp, he knows the difference. It is a blow, because the balance he gives us, and ultimately, the way they play is led by him.
“We talk about Bazball, but it’s led by Ben Stokes and Australia fear him. We’re back to square one of will Ben Stokes be fit?”