Despite being sidelined as a result of a knee damage that restricted his participation within the second Test in opposition to New Zealand and raised issues about his health for the Ashes this summer time, England cricket captain Ben Stokes has said that he’ll honor his £1.6m Indian Premier League (IPL) contract. In the Wellington Test, Stokes was solely capable of bowl two out of the 216 overs bowled by England as they misplaced by one run and drew the sequence, changing into solely the fourth staff ever to be defeated after asking their opponents to comply with on.
Meet Up of CSK bloods Devon Conway and Ben Stokes __
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“I’m not going to lie, it has been very frustrating knowing something has been holding me back from performing as I’d like to, especially as fourth seamer,” he mentioned of the damage. “I’m not a surgeon however I knew once I’d bowled a bit it didn’t really feel good. I’ve obtained a four-month interval now to get it even higher earlier than the Ashes and I’ll be doing every part I can. I’ve been in numerous conditions the place I’ve been good, I’ve gone by way of conditions the place it’s not been good, but when something I’ll in all probability take my dedication to getting it higher much more now.”
The loss prevented England from reaching seven successive Test victories for the primary time since 2004 and robbed them of momentum heading into the Ashes. They have just one red-ball match in opposition to Ireland earlier than Australia’s go to in June.
“I’ve been working hard with our physio and medics but once the games came around it was hard to get everything done around my knee. I’m going to the IPL, don’t worry. I’ve had conversations with Flem [Chennai coach Stephen Fleming] and he’s fully aware of the situation with my body at the moment.”
Stokes expressed his disappointment at not with the ability to bowl extra in New Zealand however said that he is aware of the right way to handle his physique and continues to be planning to play for Chennai Super Kings within the profitable T20 event in India later this month.
“That is what you play Test cricket for, to be in those moments. To be a part of that was amazing,” he mentioned. “It was crazy. If you can’t look back at that Test match, even in our dressing room on the losing side, and just be quite thankful that you’ve been involved in a game like that, when can you? Test matches like that don’t happen that often, they don’t come around that often. You have to lose games to really appreciate how good it is to actually win. And, if you are going to lose games, you’d like to be involved in a game like that instead of losing by 200 runs or whatever. “It might sound daft because you’ve gone so close, but I just think everyone is appreciating this week for what it is.”
On the ultimate day of the match, after dropping 4 early wickets whereas chasing a goal of 258 runs to win, a 121-run partnership between Joe Root and Stokes gave England the higher hand, just for eleventh man James Anderson to be caught when victory was inside their grasp. Despite narrowly lacking out on a historic win, Stokes remained philosophical and credited head coach Brendon McCullum for serving to flip the staff right into a fearless and profitable unit since taking on as captain final 12 months.
