Tag: Ben Stokes

MUMBAI: England head coach Matthew Motts revealed that dynamic all-rounder Ben Stokes was “on target” to be available for their crucial ICC World Cup 2023 clash against South Africa.

Stokes, who came out of retirement ahead of the ICC World Cup 2023 has now missed his side’s all three opening fixtures due to a hip complaint.

The all-rounder witnessed his side succumbing to defeats against New Zealand and Afghanistan from the dugout.

Meanwhile, England head coach Matthew Motts gave an update regarding Stokes, stating they are “confident” that he would play against South Africa.

“We’ve obviously been relatively conservative with him, but the medical staff were always confident that South Africa was a game we could target,” Mott said.

“I haven’t had a report on him in the last 24 hours, but before that, he was on target.

“So fingers crossed, he can tick off all the things that need to be ticked off and he comes back into that side.

“He’s like the spiritual leader of the group in many ways, and he certainly spoke really well after the game the other day, and spoke about that need to really assert ourselves.”

Defending champions England had a dismal start to their title defence but Ben Stokes’ potential return could serve them well, who now need to win five out of their remaining six matches to make it to the semi-finals.

They take on South Africa at Wankhede Stadium on Saturday, who also sustained a severe hit to their ICC World Cup 2023 campaign as they were upset by the Netherlands on Tuesday.

But South Africa still remained in the third spot with four points in three matches while England are in fifth with two points in as many matches.

READ: Babar Azam continues to lead ICC ODI Batting Rankings

England all-rounder Ben Stokes is likely to miss England’s second match in the ICC World Cup 2023 against Bangladesh on October 10 at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association [HPCA] Stadium in Dharamsala.

Stokes is nursing a sore left hip and did not feature in England’s crushing nine-wicket loss against New Zealand in the opening game of the ICC World Cup 2023.

New Zealand batters Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra scored dominant centuries to power their side to a thumping victory with 82 balls to spare while chasing 283.

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England captain Jos Buttler hinted at Stokes’ possible absence from the game against Bangladesh during a press conference.

“It’s good to see him [Ben Stokes] back in the nets and building back towards full fitness, but he’s probably unlikely for tomorrow,” said Buttler.

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Ben Stokes came out of ODI retirement in August to participate in England’s defence of the ongoing ICC Men’s World Cup as a specialist batter owing to his chronic knee injury.

He made a brilliant comeback to ODI cricket in the series against New Zealand prior to the ICC World Cup 2023. During the third match of the series, he broke the record for the highest score by an England men’s player in ODIs, as he scored 182 off 124 balls.

Following tomorrow’s game against Bangladesh, the defending champions England will face Afghanistan in their third match of the ICC World Cup 2023 on October 15 at Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi.

READ: Australia’s Jake Fraser-McGurk hits fastest List-A century

England must avoid regarding Ben Stokes as a “messiah” or a “Superman” if the champions are to get their World Cup 2023 campaign back on track, according to teammate Mark Wood.

England’s title defence got off to a woeful start when they suffered a nine-wicket defeat by New Zealand in Thursday’s opening match of the tournament – a game Stokes missed with a hip injury.

England’s test captain Ben Stokes is known for his ability across all three main formats to rescue England from difficult positions, notably during the team’s dramatic World Cup final win over New Zealand at Lord’s.

But fast bowler Mark Wood said other members of the team had to “stand up”.

“I don’t want to put too much pressure on him,” Wood told the BBC. “He’s not Superman. It’s not all just about the messiah Stokesy coming back and him doing everything.

Watch ICC World Cup 2023 Live on ARY ZAP

“He’s obviously one of our best players, if not our best player, but all the lads have to stand up as well.”

Ben Stokes is only in India as a batsman rather than his usual all-rounder role because of a longstanding knee problem.

Wood was one of several England bowlers to suffer as New Zealand comfortably chased down a target of 283 inside 37 overs on Thursday, with Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra both compiling impressive unbeaten hundreds.

“New Zealand played really well,” said express quick Wood, whose five overs cost 55 runs. “We were a bit off and they played really well. It’s as simple as that.”

But England, who next play Bangladesh on Tuesday, lost three group games in 2019 before winning the title.

“A great trait of the group is that sort of resilience and bouncing back and calmness,” said Wood. “I trust every member in there, they’ve been through bad times and good times.

“We know that we can do it.”

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England captain Ben Stokes’s dynamic 80, his latest dashing innings kept the hosts’ Ashes hopes alive before Moeen Ali struck twice in quick succession in the third Test against Australia at Headingley on Friday.

Australia were 116-4 in their second innings at stumps on the second day, a lead of 142 runs, as they looked to go 3-0 up in the five-match series and secure a first Ashes campaign triumph in England since 2001.

Mitchell Marsh, who had already marked his first Test in nearly four years with a brilliant run-a-ball 118 in Australia’s first-innings 263, was 17 not out, with Travis Head unbeaten on 18.

Australia had been in command at 68-1 on Friday only for off-spinner Moeen to take two wickets for two runs in nine balls while removing Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith — two of the world’s top three-ranked Test batsmen.

England had slumped to 142-7 at lunch.

But all-rounder Stokes’s brilliant knock took England to 237 all out, a deficit of just 26 runs, despite Australia captain Pat Cummins’s 6-91.

Fast bowler Cummins, however, was happy with Australia’s position at stumps.

“Overall to have a lead is a great effort,” he told the BBC. “Stokes batted well and (Mark) Wood put some into the stands too.”

He added: “Just when one team gets ahead the other team takes a wicket. I’m sure the fans are loving it, but I wouldn’t mind a few less stressful days.”

Ben Stokes also hit a blistering 155 in the second Ashes Test at Lord’s last week as England suffered a 43-run defeat.

Friday’s innings revived memories of Stokes’s Ashes heroics at Headingley four years ago, when his astounding unbeaten century guided England to a remarkable one-wicket win.

Stuart Broad then removed David Warner for the 17th time in Tests, the left-hander caught in the slips for one.

England, however, were a bowler light with paceman Ollie Robinson missing because of a back spasm and Australia were grinding them down until Moeen’s double strike.

Labuschagne, dropped on 33 when under-fire wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow couldn’t hold a tough chance, hadn’t added to his score when to his next ball he carelessly swept Moeen to deep square leg.

Smith, in his 100th Test and just days after his fine hundred at Lord’s, was then out for a mere two when he whipped Moeen straight to midwicket as the bowler took his 200th Test wicket.

“When Robbo (Robinson) had a spasm I knew I’d be bowling a fair bit,” Moeen, who at stumps had 2-34 in 17 overs, told Sky Sports.

Obdurate opener Usman Khawaja then eventually fell for 43 when caught behind after being squared-up by Chris Woakes.

England had resumed on 68-3, with Joe Root 19 not out and Bairstow, whose controversial stumping exit at Lord’s in the second Ashes Test provoked a furious row, unbeaten on one in front of their Yorkshire home crowd.

Star batsman Root, however, fell for his overnight score to just the second ball of the day when he tentatively edged Cummins to Warner at first slip.

Bairstow then exited for 12 when he flat-footedly drove at left-arm quick Mitchell Starc, with Smith holding a sharp second-slip catch.

But fast bowler Wood, having taken an impressive 5-34 on Thursday, hit Starc for a six, four and another six off his first three balls during a rapid 24.

Ben Stokes, in at 68-4, was reprieved twice on 45 off successive deliveries from off-spinner Todd Murphy.

Starc dropped Stokes in the deep before Murphy — called up after Nathan Lyon’s Ashes tour-ending calf injury at Lord’s — failed to hold a hard-hit return catch.

Stokes went to fifty in style by driving Murphy for six and promptly repeated the dose next ball.

He launched Murphy for another six before he holed out to end a 108-ball innings featuring six fours and five sixes.

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BIRMINGHAM: England’s Test captain Ben Stokes opened up on his early declaration on the first day of the Ashes opener, stating that England wanted to “pounce” on Australia.

Opting to bat first in the Ashes opener, England put on a decent show with the bat in the first innings thanks to a brilliant 30th century by Joe Root.

With England at 393/8 in the closing minutes of the opening day and Joe Root still unbeaten on 118, England skipper made a surprising decision of calling for the declaration from the dugout.

Meanwhile, Stokes’s decision of an early declaration did not favour England as Australia, at the back of Usman Khawaja’s century, managed to finish just seven runs short.

England then piled up 273 in the second innings, setting a 281-run target for the recently-crowned World Test Champions.

Australia looked in trouble while chasing 281 when their first inning star Usman Khawaja walked back after scoring 65.

The visitors still needed 72 runs with just three wickets in hand with England sniffing the victory but Pat Cummins’s masterclass with the bat propelled Australia to an astonishing triumph.

Following England’s defeat, captain Ben Stokes came under fire on social media for the declaration but he justified the move, claiming that England wanted to “pounce” on Australia.

“I saw (the declaration) as an opportunity to pounce on Australia. No one likes to go out for 20 minutes at the back end of a day,” Stokes said following the match, as quoted by Sky Sports.

“Scoring 390 and then being able to declare sends a message to Australia about how we want to take them on.

“If we didn’t declare, would we have got that excitement like we did at the end? I’m not 100 per cent sure but I’m not going to be looking back at this game as what ifs. We just didn’t manage to get over the line.”

Ben Stokes went on to say that there were numerous points in the game where things could have gone the other way.

“I mean, look, you play cricket over five days. There’s so many things that goes on that you could look back at, you know, sort of 20 individual moments, which you could go like, ‘oh, if that happened, if that went our way could this game have been different?’ But, you know, I don’t like to look at things like that.

“We’ve managed to stand up to Australia and being in control for most of it makes it hurt a little bit more that we’ve lost but there are four more games left,” Stokes concluded.

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BIRMINGHAM: England spin bowling all-rounder Moeen Ali revealed his brief conversation with Test skipper Ben Stokes that lured him out of Test retirement and into the squad for the Ashes.

After first-choice spinner Jack Leach was ruled out of all five Ashes Tests against Australia due to a back injury, England captain Stokes’s one-word message was enough to convince all-rounder Moeen Ali to rejoin England’s red-ball lineup.

Consequently, Moeen can now play his first Test, since announcing his retirement in 2021, if gets picked in England’s Playing XI for the first Ashes Test, scheduled at Edgbaston, in his home city of Birmingham.

“Stokesy messaged me with a question mark — ‘Ashes?’,” Moeen told reporters here on Tuesday.

Moeen Ali claimed that he was unaware of Jack Leach’s back injury and assumed Stokes was kidding.

“Then the news came through and I had a chat with him,” he said. “That was it. It’s the Ashes. To be part of it would be amazing.”

Apparently, his growing friendship with Stokes — the duo were teammates in Chennai Super Kings during this year’s Indian Premier League — made the difference.

While responding to a question if any other captain could have lured him out of the Test retirement, Moeen Ali unhesitantly replied: “Probably not, no.”

Moeen also told the media here that he is thrilled to be a part of England’s quest for its first Ashes series victory since 2015.

“The fact that it is the Ashes and it is such a big series, to be part of it would be amazing,” said Moeen.

England have developed a force to be reckoned with in Tests since Ben Stokes and Brandon McCullum took the reigns of the side as they won 11 out of 13 matches and Moeen Ali also expressed his keenness upon being a part of the exciting brand of cricket.

“There are no question marks over any shots you play, which gives me licence to play a few more rash shots, I guess.

“Even with the ball, he is more on the aggressive side. I know I go for runs but Stokesy also knows there are some wicket-taking deliveries in between. That’s all he cares about.”

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LONDON: England star Ben Stokes was named the Wisden Almanack’s leading men’s cricketer in the world for the third time in four years on Monday.

Stokes was selected for his dynamic captaincy of England’s Test team in 2022, as well as his match-winning performance in the T20 World Cup final.

The all-rounder, who appears on the cover of the 160th edition of Wisden alongside England Test head coach Brendon McCullum, previously won the award in 2019 and 2020.

Stokes has masterminded 10 wins in 12 matches since taking over as England skipper, with his attacking and imaginative approach revitalising a previously moribund team.

Stokes also made waves in the white-ball game, helping to deliver the silverware for England’s T20 side as his half-century settled the final against Pakistan in November.

“It’s hard to think of any other cricketer who could have transformed his team’s fortunes so suddenly as Ben Stokes,” Wisden editor Lawrence Booth said.

“When he took over the Test captaincy, England had won one game in their previous 17. By the time they had become the first visiting side to win 3-0 in Pakistan, they had won nine out of 10, and were playing with unprecedented style and verve.”

Stokes’ England team-mate Jonny Bairstow was the inaugural recipient of the new Wisden Trophy, awarded for the outstanding individual Test performance, after his twin centuries against India at Edgbaston.

Australia’s Beth Mooney was named the leading women’s cricketer in the world for the second time.

India’s big-hitting Suryakumar Yadav was handed the award for the top Twenty20 cricketer in the world.

READ: Mickey Arthur arrives in Pakistan for brief visit before taking up new role

MOUNT MAUNGANUI: England captain Ben Stokes fired an Ashes warning to Australia after crushing New Zealand by 267 runs in the first Test at Mount Maunganui on Sunday, saying his team has got more firepower on the way.

England made it 10 wins from 11 Tests since Stokes was handed the captaincy and Brendon McCullum the coaching reins last year, introducing an attacking revolution that again proved decisive in the day-night Test at the Bay Oval.

Having used aggression and clever pink-ball tactics to get the upper hand, England closed out victory in the first session of day four, dismissing New Zealand for 126 after they resumed at 63-5.

Veteran pace duo Stuart Broad and James Anderson both finished with four second innings wickets as England notched a first win on New Zealand soil in 15 years and took a 1-0 lead in the two-match series.

Broad (4-49) was a menace on Saturday night under lights when he tore through New Zealand’s top order, with all four wickets clean bowled to reduce them to 28-5 in pursuit of 394 for victory.

Long-time new ball partner James Anderson (4-18) became the chief tormentor on Sunday, knocking over four tailenders as New Zealand added 63 more runs in 22.3 overs.

Only Daryl Mitchell, unbeaten on 57, put up any resistance after resuming his innings on 13, striking two sixes on his way to a sixth Test half-century.

England tactically dominated the game, batting aggressively and deliberately timing the end of both their innings so New Zealand had to face a new pink ball in lively seam conditions under lights on days one and three.

The visitors will be favourites to beat the struggling Black Caps in the second Test in Wellington before turning their attention to the showdown with Australia in England’s summer.

Stokes suggested he was already excited at the prospect of unleashing England’s fearless approach when they bid to reclaim the Ashes.

‘Selection nightmare’

The captain said depth had become an England strength, naming three injured players — batsman Jonny Bairstow and pace bowlers Jofra Archer and Mark Wood — among a group who will be applying pressure on the current squad.

“It’s probably going to end up being a selection nightmare at some point but you’d much rather have that,” Stokes said.

“It’s a great thing to be thinking about going forward — the amount of world class players that we’ve got, not only here at the moment but also sat at home, recovering from injuries or whatever it may be.

“I don’t like to look too far ahead but I think it will be a good crop of players to be able to choose from when we come to the Ashes.”

Stokes said their attack-first approach, dubbed “Bazball”, was working because the players had brought into it unequivocally and had the ability to execute.

“Not only have I got an unbelievable bowling attack to be able to captain, I’ve also got a seriously skilled and very brave batting line-up to look at and watch them express themselves,” Stokes said.

“They’ve got to take a lot of credit for the record I’ve had so far as a captain.

“If we keep playing the way in which we’re playing and we’re executing the things that we want to do well then we’re going to be giving ourselves an opportunity to win.”

“We’re just always looking to put oppositions under pressure.”

New Zealand captain Tim Southee conceded England had outplayed his team but didn’t think the margin between the sides was reflected in the result.

He welcomed the return to traditional red ball cricket at the Basin Reserve, starting on Friday.

“I don’t know if gulf is the right word, I think England strategically played it pretty well,” Southee said

“You look back to day one, the way that they scored allowed them to set up the match from there by declaring at the difficult time under lights.

“The end result is big, but it could have been slightly different so you reassess and you move forward to a traditional Test match at a ground we enjoy playing at.”

The home side are set to regain the services of seam bowler Matt Henry, who was unavailable for the series opener to attend the birth of his child.

READ: Jadeja stars as India hammer Australia to take 2-0 Test series lead

DUBAI: England’s Test captain Ben Stokes has been named ICC Men’s Test Cricketer of the Year for 2022.

Stokes, who had a formidable year in the longest format captaining his side to nine victories from 10 matches since he took the job in mid-2022, overshadowed other competitors on the list to win the coveted award.

“One player defined the year of Test cricket more than any other in 2022 and is the clear and deserving winner of the ICC Men’s Test Cricketer of the Year” said ICC in a media release on Thursday.

Having a tough contest with his compatriot Jonny Bairstow, Australia’s red-ball run machine Usman Khawaja and South Africa’s fierce pacer Kagiso Rabada, Stokes stood out owing to his meteoric rise as the saviour of English Test side and a modern-day attacking approach  – often dubbed as Bazball – that he injected into the oldest format of the game with help of head coach Brendon McCullum.

Besides an awe-inspiring journey as a team leader, the all-rounder accumulated 870 runs, averaging 36.25 and took 26 wickets at an average of 31.19 during last year. He notched up two centuries as well in this period.

“On the basis of his numbers alone, England’s talismanic all-rounder Ben Stokes had an excellent year in the whites of international Test cricket,” said ICC’s media release.

“Since taking over as England captain, Stokes has led the team to nine wins from 10 Tests, completing series victories over New Zealand and South Africa at home, beating India in the one-off postponed Test to level the series at 2-2, and hammering Pakistan 3-0 away from home – England’s best ever margin of victory in the country.”

“Prior to his appointment as captain, England had been beaten in each of their four most recent completed series and had won just one of their previous 17 Tests.”

It is pertinent to mention that Stokes was also named captain of the ICC Test Team of the Year, announced earlier on Tuesday.

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KARACHI: England captain Ben Stokes has affirmed that his team will continue with their attacking style of playing Test cricket, saying if he can make people ‘stop saying that the Test is a dying format’, he will keep doing that.

After his side’s comprehensive win in the final Test that completed a 3-0 clean sweep for England against Pakistan, Stokes said it was always challenging to play in subcontinent conditions but what they had done was ‘pretty special’.

“I feel like as if everything we’ve tried has come off in the series,” he said in a post-match press conference on Tuesday.

He claimed that he had learned a lot from playing in such conditions, saying it was one of the best things for him on the tour.

Stokes, who has now led England to nine victories out of ten matches since he took over the reins of the Test side earlier this year, vowed to continue with their aggressive approach in red-ball format, often dubbed as ‘BazBall’.

” Sports is entertainment…People want to see the exciting stuff,” he said.

“What we can do is to concentrate on the way we want to play and if we can make it (Test cricket) grow and stop people saying it’s a dying format, we’ll keep doing that.”

“But I am not gonna say every nation around the world needs to change the way they play because I don’t think it’s not my place to say.”

Furthermore, England’s captain praised the 18-year-old Rehan Ahmed, who returned astounding figures of 5/48 in the second innings of his debut Test, for having a ‘cricket savvy brain’ and called him an ‘unfinished article’.

“We won’t be putting any more pressure on him and let him continue to get better and better,” he said about Rehan – the youngest player to make a Test debut for England.

“He is not a finished article but it’s a great sign for us going forward to have someone at such a young age, whom we can put a lot of time and effort into him” he maintained.

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