A good news has come for England as the talisman all-rounder Ben Stokes has declared himself fit for the big match against South Africa on Sunday at Wankhede stadium, Mumbai.
Upon his return, Stokes has called on the team to bring less blunder and more thunder to their remaining displays in the competition, telling his teammates: “If we’re going to go down, let’s go down doing what we’re known for.”
Stokes as one of the senior players of the team spoke in the dressing room after the team’s shock defeat to Afghanistan on Sunday, their second in three games and, having memorably described a 0-2 Ashes deficit as a “perfect situation” in the summer, is also seeing their current situation as an opportunity to strike back.
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“I want us to go out there and play in the way we talk about. If we’re going to go down, let’s go down doing what we’re known for. Let’s not be timid, be restricted in what we want to do. We want to go out and show the opposition what England is, and what we’ve been known for.”
Stokes tore the fascia off a muscle near his left hip – “a very interesting injury, a very rare one to do” – while working in the hotel gym in Guwahati, where England had two warm-up games scheduled before the start of their World Cup campaign. “I heard it pop,” he said.
“When I did it I thought I was done, because it’s not good hearing a pop. But thankfully it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as we initially thought. We got a programme in place straight away and it went really well and now I’m here, available for selection.”
Stokes was seeing working hard in nets in England’s first training session at the Wankhede Stadium on Thursday, where Jofra Archer, who arrived in Mumbai on Wednesday night, made a briefer appearance with few run ups. But he will stay at the team as reserve.
Ben Stokes said he was not far from being able to play against Afghanistan, but decided on that occasion to be cautious. “If it’s a knockout game you’ve got to not worry about doing any more danger to yourself, because that could be the last chance you get,” he said. “But we were nowhere near at that stage in that game.”
England has struggled and didn’t find rhythm in two matches against New Zealand and Afghanistan. However, it cannot be all Stokes who comes and does some magic to bring victory in England’s favour.
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Stokes’ colleagues have expressed their thoughts on the potential influence of his comeback. Mark Wood stressed that he isn’t a superhuman figure and that it’s not solely reliant on Stokes to perform miracles. Jonny Bairstow added that while Stokes would naturally make a difference, the team isn’t solely dependent on one individual.
“I’m not the messiah, that is true,” Ben Stokes said. “I’m one person in a team sport, one person who can add certain bits. It doesn’t all of a sudden mean you’re going to win a game, because I know I’m just a very small part of a bigger entity. Everyone who walks on to that field for England is a match-winner in their own right.”
“If two or three of us have a day out we know we’ll be a hard team to beat. I don’t think anyone in team sport coming back in automatically means you’re going to win a game. All I can try and do is what I do every single time I wear an England shirt, and give my absolute all.”
Excerpts taken from The Guardian
