England cricket fans stunned Ben Stokes provides massive update on his availability in the Test series vs India

England Test skipper Ben Stokes is fresh from his knee surgery after the ODI World Cup 2023. He came out of his ODI retirement to play in the tournament. However, as it turned out, England had a disappointing performance with Stokes’s efforts going in vain.

Stokes who was struggling with chronic knee pain for a long time finally decided to operate his knee. He played just two matches in IPL 2023 and was ruled out of the tournament. Stokes was released by Chennai Super Kings and none of the franchises bought him in the IPL 2024 auction.

He is still in the process of recovery. Ahead of the first Test against India in Hyderabad, Ben Stokes opened up on his knee surgery. He said it was the last option after enduring all the pain that he had.

“It was a bit more than a ‘clear out’ as well. Surgery is always the last option. Surgeries can go very well, but they can also sometimes not go too well and set people back even further, and potentially even end careers,” Stokes said as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

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He further said that the knees recover quickly if it is not burdened with too much weight. His training is also monitored in the same way so that it does not overload his knees.

“Because obviously, the less weight you’re carrying, the less weight you’ve got going through your knee and, actually, the quicker your recovery is,” he added.

Previously, England head coach Brendon McCullum said that Stokes is “stripping fit” and is looking like a greyhound ahead of the first Test against India.

“Ben Stokes looks like a greyhound, he’s stripping fit. He’s put the hard work in and everyone knows his work ethic is phenomenal,” said coach McCullum ahead of the five-match series as quoted by Skysports.

Stokes further confirmed that he is not in a state of bowling as of now as his body has nowhere close to taking the load of him bowling long overs in Tets cricket yet.

 My Body Is Nowhere Close To Be Thinking About Bowling: Ben Stokes

“As I said before, bowling is such an unnatural thing for the body to go through that it’s not going to be a case of right, I’m good now, straight back into bowling. Remember the last ball I bowled was actually in the Ashes at Lord’s. So my body is nowhere near ready to even be thinking about competitive bowling at the moment,” Stokes was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.

“But if I get to a stage in this tour where we can start building myself back up to bowling, then hopefully by the summer, that’s where I’ve earmarked as playing a full role as I want to be doing,” he added.

England will play five Test matches against India. The first Test will be played in Hyderabad from January 25-29. Vizag hosts the second Test from February 2-6, followed by the third Test in Rajkot from February 15-19. The fourth Test will be played in Ranchi from February 23-27. The series concludes with the fifth and final Test in Dharamsala from March 7-11.

England have announced a 16-member squad for the Test series against India. They named four spinners in their squad with two of them uncapped. Leg spinner Shoaib Bashir was ruled out of the series with issues related to his visa. Harry Brook, the batter has pulled out of the Test series citing personal reasons with Dan Lawrence named as his replacement.

England Test Squad: Ben Stokes (C), James Anderson, Rehan Ahmed, Gus Atkinson, Jonny Bairstow, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ben Foakes (WK), Dan Lawrence, Tom Hartley, Jack Leach, Ollie Pope, Ollie Robinson, Joe Root, Mark Wood.

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