England allrounder, Ben Stokes is ruled out from tomorrow’s opening game of the ODI World Cup 2023 against New Zealand.
This is due to owing a hip niggle that he picked up recently and did not feature in the warm-up game against Bangladesh as well.
Says skipper, Jos Buttler on Stokes injury,
He’s got a slight niggle with his hip. Fingers crossed that it’ll be good news for us. He’s working hard with the physios and we’ll know more when the guys arrive for training today. We’ll make the right call: if he’s not fit to play, he’s not fit to play.
Earlier, England’s warm-up game against India was washed off in Guwahati. Moreover, Buttler says that they are not willing to take any big risks ahead of a long tournament.
If he is, we can make the decision. It’s not the time to take big risks on someone at the start of the tournament. Nearer the end, maybe you do take more of a risk with people’s injuries, but it’s going to be a long tournament.
Harry Brook is going to play tomorrow instead of Stokes
Meanwhile, it has been announced that young batter Harry Brook is going to replace Stokes for the first game tomorrow.
On the other hand, Stokes has returned to 50-over cricket recently after he announced his retirement from the format last year in July.
He now has the highest-ever individual score by an English batter in ODI cricket with 182 (124) which includes 15 boundaries and 9 maximums.
In a recent series, he also finished as the highest run-scorer with 235 runs from three games with an average of 78.33 and a strike rate of 115.76 including one ton and one half-century.
Previously, Harry Brook also batted at Stokes’ position in the warm-up game against Bangladesh.
Follow Crickdom on Twitter for more.
For more cricket updates, make sure to follow us on:
