Ben Stokes has been ruled out of the rest of the summer after scans on Tuesday revealed England men’s Test captain has torn his left hamstring.
Stokes sustained the injury playing in the Hundred for Northern Superchargers against Manchester Originals on Sunday. Called through for a quick single early in Superchargers’ chase, he pulled up injured on completing the run, before falling to the floor and clutching his left leg. He had to be helped on the field and returned to the team dugout with crutches.
A scan on Tuesday revealed the extent of the damage, with Stokes now unable to play any part in the upcoming three-match Test series against Sri Lanka which begins in Manchester on August 21. It means Ollie Pope, Stokes’ vice-captain for over a year, will assume full captaincy duties for the series. He was subsequently withdrawn from London Spirit’s squad for their final Hundred match against Northern Superchargers on Tuesday evening.
The ECB said in a statement that Stokes is aiming to return for England’s winter Test tour of Pakistan, which will start in Multan on October 7. Zak Crawley, who is missing the Sri Lanka series with a finger injury, is also targeting the Pakistan tour for his return.
England have decided not to name a replacement for Stokes in their squad to face Sri Lanka. In his absence, Jordan Cox will come into contention to make his Test debut as a specialist batter at No. 6. Alternatively, they could change the balance of the team by moving Jamie Smith and Chris Woakes up to No. 6 and 7 respectively, and select an additional seamer in Matthew Potts or Olly Stone.
Stokes is expected to join the rest of the squad in Manchester this weekend, as originally planned, and it is understood he will try to be with the team for every day of the series, which includes two Tests in London.
At the same time, England will hope Pope embraces his temporary promotion, having been made Stokes’ deputy in 2023 with a view to giving him more responsibility to harness his leadership potential. His promotion to No. 3 came on similar grounds, which has largely been a success, averaging 44.63 in that position, with five centuries.
Pope’s captaincy experience is limited to a single first-class match, leading Surrey against Glamorgan in September 2021, though he did take the reins for their 2024 Vitality Blast campaign with regular skipper Chris Jordan away with England at the T20 World Cup.
He has previously captained England XIs in warm-up matches in the UAE ahead of the 2022 Pakistan tour and in New Zealand at the start of 2023, after Stokes opted to sit out of both.