England captain Ben Stokes is able to have “serious conversations” about an operation on his troublesome knee harm in a bid to set him heading in the right direction for an additional tilt on the Ashes in 2025/26.
Stokes has been struggling badly with a power left knee drawback for the previous yr and has been in seen ache all through the present collection towards Australia.
Having set his coronary heart on taking part in a full all-rounder’s function this summer season, he has been in a position to provide simply 29 overs with the ball and has not bowled in any respect within the final two Tests. Batting and fielding additionally seems to push him to the restrict at instances and, on the age of 32, an answer must be discovered.
This week’s Ashes finale on the Kia Oval, which England should win to sq. the scoreline at 2-2, is England’s final red-ball recreation for six months – a window that provides Stokes the prospect to sort out the problem head on.
He had a cortisone injection forward of this yr’s Indian Premier League to assist handle his signs and, requested if he would now contemplate going one step additional with surgical procedure, he mentioned: “Yeah, it’s something I obviously want to get sorted.
“The times I’ve seen specialists and stuff like that, there has been cricket around, so as it’s been manageable we’ve just cracked on.
“I was pretty broken after the Lord’s game, but I still managed to walk out. I think this is a good time to have some serious conversations with medics around what I could potentially do to get a role in which I can bowl without having to worry about my knee. Those are conversations we will be able to have in that time off.
“It has been frustrating in the last couple of years, not being able to have the same impact and play the same role that I have done for the last 10 years.
“So it’s obviously something that I want to be able to do and hopefully I can get sorted. I keep forgetting that I’m ageing every day.”
It’d be good to go to Australia in 2025 and have a very good likelihood of successful. The Ashes is such an vital collection for English and Australian cricket.
Regardless of what occurs within the subsequent 5 days in south London, Stokes is aware of it is going to be Pat Cummins lifting the urn as a substitute of him on the finish of the sport.
That means England at the moment are assured at the very least a decade between Ashes wins, having final triumphed in 2015, and Stokes would like to be match and firing to steer the cost Down Under subsequent time round.
“It’d be nice to go out to Australia in 2025 and have a good chance of winning,” he mentioned.
“How this series has gone and how close we were, it does make you think when we next go to Australia do we have a better chance than the last few times?
“The way in which Australians and England players speak about the Ashes, it’s obviously the big one. The Ashes is such an important series for English and Australian cricket and it would be nice to say I’ve won it twice.”
In the brief time period, Stokes has to work out easy methods to spend his time away. He and head coach Brendon McCullum have labored laborious bonding the Test crew collectively over a busy 12-month interval and now face a hiatus earlier than touring India in January.
Stokes has an open invitation to throw his hat again into the ring for England’s 50-over World Cup defence this autumn, however insisted he had no second ideas about about leaving ODI cricket behind.
“I’m retired,” was his unambiguous response to the thought.
“I’m going on holiday after this game. That’s as far as I’m thinking. But there’s only so much ‘break’ you can cope with. You really do miss that environment, when you’re around the other lads.
“In two or three weeks I’ll probably get bored and just schedule a squad game or something like that.”
Source: www.impartial.co.uk
