- Ben Stokes will not be part of England’s Champions Trophy squad after injury
- The star ‘continues to be assessed’ after a hamstring blow recurrence
Ben Stokes has been ruled out of England’s bid to win a maiden Champions Trophy due to the left hamstring injury he suffered on Test duty last week.
Stokes has featured only sporadically in limited-overs internationals in recent years, but highlighted his impact as a big-game player with crucial innings in the finals of England’s two World Cup wins in 2019 and 2022 and would have been involved in the eight-team tournament in Pakistan in February and March but for a recurrence of the hamstring trouble that first struck him five months ago.
The ECB confirmed the 33-year-old was not considered ‘as he continues to be assessed,’ after pulling up on the third day of defeat to New Zealand in Hamilton. He did not bat in the fourth innings of the 423-run humbling at Seddon Park and is now set for a spell on the sidelines that will include missing an intended spell at the SA20 in the new year.
However, England’s most prolific one-day centurion Joe Root returns in the first squads named under Brendon McCullum as the multi-format head coach. A 15-strong group will prepare for their shot at another global trophy with three one-day internationals in India in February.
Root, who has been on a Test-only diet since last November’s World Cup, will arrive on the subcontinent at the end of next month’s five-match Twenty20 series against India, replacing Leicestershire leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed for the remainder of the tour, having not played T20s for England since May 2019.
In a clear indication that England intend to streamline their personnel under McCullum, three 2024 Test debutants in Jacob Bethell, Brydon Carse and Jamie Smith are included while fast bowler Mark Wood comes back into the fold after recovering from a stress issue in his right elbow.
Smith is uncapped at T20 level but will be an option to take the wicketkeeping gloves in all formats after England’s white-ball captain Jos Buttler was persuaded to lead from the field by McCullum. Surrey’s Smith missed the 2-1 Test win in New Zealand after choosing to be at the birth of his first child.
But Sam Curran is a notable absentee. Dropped from September’s series against Australia, a player who was England’s vice-captain 12 months ago was recalled for the recent matches in the Caribbean, but appears to have paid the price for going wicketless in six of his last seven ODIs.
Instead, England have preferred Jamie Overton, his Surrey team-mate, in the seam bowling all-rounder role – a decision that while not unexpected does leave them with a lack of variety in their attack.
Since becoming 50-over world champions in 2019, only Adil Rashid has taken more wickets for England than the trio of David Willey, Reece Topley and Curran, but retirement, injury and exclusion respectively has left them without a left-armer to provide a different angle.
