England Test captain Ben Stokes recently turned to social media to address and refute accusations that he had been picking and choosing The Hundred over County Championship matches. Fair’s fair, with Stokes being about commitment and leadership, he found himself in the spotlight after a journalist questioned his commitment to domestic cricket.
The row erupted after Stokes picked up a serious hamstring injury in his time with Northern Superchargers during The Hundred Men’s 2024. Scans confirmed the seriousness of the injury, thus ruling him out of contention for the upcoming Test series against Sri Lanka. This is what irked Scott Wilson, a UK publication writer, who responded by saying that Stokes had chosen to turn a blind eye to County Championship cricket in order to feature in what he termed “The Hundred circus.” Scott Wilson took to X to express his frustration: “So Ben Stokes isn’t allowed to play any county cricket for #Durham during the summer, but he’s fine to mess about in the circus that is the Hundred, rupturing his hamstring and ruling him out for the rest of the summer. Utterly farcical,” he wrote.
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He responded to the claim of Stokes, who was trying to defend his record with commitments to County Championship cricket. He said he played three County Championship matches for Durham this summer, replying right to Wilson: “Chief Sports Writer??? I played 3 Championship games for Durham this year,” Stokes responded in the face of severe criticism.
Chief Sports Writer??? I played 3 Championship games for Durham this year https://t.co/ni40mB0i6m
— Ben Stokes (@benstokes38) August 14, 2024
The 33-year-old all-rounder had also missed the IPL 2024 and the T20 World Cup to focus on his fitness for the English summer. In his County Championship appearances, he struggled with the bat but was incisive with the ball, returning figures of 18 wickets at an average of 18.83 with a five-wicket haul as well.
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Veteran England all-rounder Moeen Ali reacted to Stokes’ absence, describing the effect it is going to have on his team: “First of all, once you lose a player like Stokes, you are not only losing a batter, you are losing the captain, losing another bowler – the whole balance of the team is now messed up a bit actually,” Ali said. He conceded that team management would have to think very hard about how to fill the void that Stokes’ absence would leave.
While Stokes recuperates, young batter Ollie Pope will act as stand-in skipper for England in the Test series against Sri Lanka. The games begin at Emirates Old Trafford in Manchester on August 21, followed by matches at Lord’s and the Kennington Oval. Stokes will likely set sights on making a comeback to active duty during England’s tour of Pakistan, which is set to start in October.
