The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has revealed that England all-rounder Ben Stokes is on the verge of complete recovery from the finger that he sustained in IPL 2021. Meanwhile, pacer Jofra Archer will be seeing a medical consultant in order to determine the seriousness of his elbow problem.
The prolific all-rounder got injured while taking a catch to dismiss Punjab Kings’ Chris Gayle in the first game of the season for Rajasthan Royals. He is expected to return to action by next month or so for Durham in the T20 Vitality Blast.
England’s head coach Chris Silverwood said, “If he continues to improve without any impact on his rehabilitation, we could see him return next month for Durham in the Vitality Blast competition.”
Although his condition is improving, Stokes has been ruled out of the two-match home Test series against New Zealand. Silverwood admitted that his return will be slow, despite the fact that he has started bowling and practicing normally. According to Silverwood, Stokes is progressing the way they expected him to be and justifies that they are “potentially looking at the T20 Blast and then a gradual build back into international cricket for him.”
Silverwood also confirmed that Jofra Archer will be meeting a specialist to look into the elbow injury. Archer struggled to bowl during second innings Sussex’s Championship match last week. The fast bowler was ruled out of IPL 2021 due to a hand injury.
The head coach is hoping that Archer’s injury woes are solved soon. England will have to manage the workload of Stokes and Archer in the coming months as they need them fit for the T-20 World Cup and Ashes. The rotation policy implemented by ECB will help in keeping key players fresh for the remainder of the year. Silverwood’s immediate focus will be on the two-match test series against New Zealand in June before the long five-match series against India.