The Ashes is less than three weeks away and still everyone is unclear about Ben Stokes’ availability in the prestigious series. The England team is ready to live a life after Ben Stokes, said by Coach Trevor Bayliss.
However, England Cricket Director Andrew Strauss is very keen to know the situation over Stokes’ case, who is eager to watch Stokes playing in the Ashes.
The all-rounder was arrested in September after a brawl outside a nightclub in Bristol, where he punched a man as many as 25 times in a minute. Stokes was with Alex Hales, who both spent the whole night in the Police Station while Stokes was in the lock up. Meanwhile, ECB handed him a ban till he gets a clean chit from Avon and Somerset Police.
Strauss said while talking to BBC radio, “The situation in a word is complicated. There’s two different potential disciplinary procedures he has to go through, one is the ECB’s own internal one and the other is any potential police action. Until we know more from the police it’s very hard for us to put a timeline on anything.”
“What we all want is clarity on what that situation is and how much cricket he will be missing for England. We’re keen to get into that and move this forward but we’re in the hands of the police. Ben has been and is developing into a world-class cricketer. The fact he’s not out there at the moment is a blow to the England team,” he added.
England is preparing in Australia, where they have played one of their three warm-up match. Now, they have travelled to Adelaide, where they will play four-day warm-up game under the flood lights. The second Test of this series will be played at Adelaide Oval, which will also become the first ever day-night Ashes Test.
During the last tour Down Under, England had to swallow a tough pill after giving away the urn by 5-0. Amidst, former skipper charged up his players with some words and said “I was involved in a 5-0 drubbing in 2006 and I used that as a very strong base for retribution. I’m sure the guys who were there last time and suffered the chastening defeat at the hands of Mitchell Johnson will want to put that right.”
The opening encounter of the five-match series will undergo from November 23 in Brisbane.
