New Delhi
England Test captain Ben Stokes has described himself as a bionic man after undergoing surgery on his left hamstring. Stokes, 33, suffered a recurrence of the injury while bowling during England’s third Test against New Zealand in December, having previously torn his hamstring while batting for Northern Superchargers in the men’s Hundred against Manchester Originals in August .
That early injury kept him out of action for two months, as well as missing England’s home Test series against Sri Lanka. He later admitted that his race to be fit in time for the team’s winter assignments in Pakistan and New Zealand had left him physically exhausted and taking a toll on him. However, with England not scheduled to play any Tests until their tour of Zimbabwe in May, Stokes has decided to miss three months, which includes missing next month’s ICC Champions Trophy. He posted a photo on Instagram of him lying in the back seat of a car after surgery, wearing a large leg brace and propped up by a pillow. He wrote in the caption, Bionic Man for a while, along with a laughing emoji and also posted a sign-off….
Before suffering the injury in Hamilton, Stokes had bowled 36.2 overs, his most in a Test since 40 overs (also against New Zealand) at Trent Bridge in 2022. On the first day of the Test, he bowled 23 overs, the most he had bowled in a day, divided into spells of eight, eight and seven. Coming into England’s domestic summer following successful knee surgery in October 2023, he bowled 49 overs in three Tests against the West Indies, taking five wickets.
“I have to work very hard physically to do my job, but in the last two matches I have bowled a lot of overs and I am more confident in playing multiple spells in a day,” he said ahead of the Hamilton Test. This is how far I got before I strained my hamstring. I bowled well in the summer, had a setback, but now I have recovered from it and am not worried about anything else going forward. As you get older, you think about your body a little more, but I work hard because I have to.
Apart from the Champions Trophy, Stokes has been forced to abandon a lucrative £800,000 deal with MI Cape Town in the SA20 starting on Thursday.
