Desperate England not pushing for Ben Stokes return

England are desperate to turn things around in the ongoing Test series after falling behind on the back of a hurting loss at Lord’s on Monday. They have dropped Dom Sibley from the top order—their second top-order batsman in two matches of the series and replaced him with Dawid Malan, who is touted to be a batsman with strong character.

England played with just four bowlers in the first Test of the series at Trent Bridge and the captain Joe Root clearly looked running out of options. To correct that and bring balance in the playing XI, they recalled Moeen Ali straight from The Hundred, where he was hitting boundaries for fun.

Moeen brought the balance to the side, but Root certainly seems to be missing his maverick in Ben Stokes, who used to turn things around both with the bat and ball, at least in English conditions.

The all-rounder had pulled out of the series to give himself some time off the game and also to rest his injured finger that gave him “ridiculous pain” while playing and leading England against Pakistan.

The England team management however is not in any hurry to force the issue with Stokes in terms of the length of his sabbatical. Coach Chris Silverwood has refused to push him to return and said that England management does not have any timeframe in mind and instead will wait for him to come and say when he is ready. 

Silverwood said that what is important for England is that Stokes and his family are “ok” so that whenever he returns to play for the side, he is mentally perfect to perform at his best. He said that England are all for supporting him in the time of need and will welcome his back with “open arms”.

“No, there is no pushing from my point of view. I don’t think you can push with these issues. I will wait and there will be an element of waiting for him to come to me to let me know he is ready. There is no time limit on it,” Silverwood said.

“I would stress again the important thing is Ben is okay, his family is okay and that he comes back strong and, when he re-enters the frame, he is ready in his mind to come back and perform for England like we know he can.”

“I am certainly not pushing him for an answer and I don’t think that would be the right thing to do. There are people around him supporting him and, when he is ready to come back in, we will welcome him with open arms, but until then he will get all the support he needs.”

England have suffered setbacks one after another as players of the highest order such as Stokes, Stuart Broad have been ruled out of the series. They are 0-1 down the five-match series and have some more injury concerns to deal with after Mark Wood hurt his shoulder on the fourth day and James Anderson barely managing to be fit for the Lord’s Test.