Ben Stokes: England captain urged by Alastair Cook, Phil Tufnell to manage load after latest injury in New Zealand
Updated 17/12/2024 at 18:51 GMT
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Alastair Cook and Phil Tufnell hope Ben Stokes’ latest injury will force him to reduce his bowling load ahead of a huge 2025 for England. The 33-year-old England captain pulled up clutching his hamstring during the third Test against New Zealand and is awaiting scan results to learn the extent of the damage. Stokes required surgery on his left knee last year and tore his hamstring in August 2024.
Highlights: New Zealand humble England in final Test of series
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Former England internationals Alastair Cook and Phil Tufnell have urged Ben Stokes to manage his bowling going forward after suffering another injury in the third Test against New Zealand.
England were beaten by a whopping 423 runs in Hamilton, but it is the potential loss of Stokes that will be of far greater concern.
The 33-year-old pulled up with a hamstring injury during his 37th over of the final Test, a dead-rubber after England had already wrapped up the series victory.
It succeeds a left knee issue last year that required major surgery and a hamstring tear in August while playing for the Northern Superchargers in the Hundred that forced him out of home Tests against Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
He came into the tour of New Zealand confident his injury issues were behind him, but they have come back to haunt him. And perhaps worse than that, it was, on the face of it as Cook said on The Edge, avoidable.
With a first series away win over the Black Caps since 2008 already secured, Stokes did not need to exert himself so much, but that is the way he plays the game.
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He vowed there will be "no holding back" despite his latest setback, but Cook thinks – perhaps hopes – this might be the knock that forces a slight change in approach.
"I did see it somewhere that he's refusing to manage his bowling loads," Cook said on TNT Sports’ The Edge. "And that is just Ben Stokes, isn't it? That is how he operates. He has to operate 100% so he’ll do the rehab 100% and he'll be back bowling again at some stage.
"I do think this could be the one in which he goes, ‘I'm going to manage and only bowl…’ - not only bowl a certain amount, but just be a little bit more conscious of his body."
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Stokes ‘has to operate at 100%’, but latest injury might force him to change, says Cook
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Stokes risks being his own worst enemy with T20 and ODI series’ against India in the new year, while England also travel to Australia in November 2025 with ambitions of claiming just a second away Ashes win since 1987.
The all-rounder is seen as critical to that mission and Tufnell believes it’s high time someone exerted some authority to protect England’s talisman.
"I think someone's got to take him to one side and tell that to him," said Tufnell. "Now is the time that they’ve got to say, ‘Right, we're kind of taking this out of your hands a little bit, because you're just destroying yourself a bit and there's bigger things to come, bigger fish to fry’.
"We've got India. We’ve got Australia. You [Cook] said yesterday, I think England won't be able to win the Ashes without a fit Ben Stokes, so I think someone does now [have to tell him] to just pull back a little bit, because we need you."
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