Ben Stokes should not play in the first rounds of the county championship as he fights to be in good shape to lead England, said his Durham coach Ryan Campbell on Monday. The 33-year-old test captain recovers from an operation to the hamstrings after having broken down in New Zealand in December, his second tear of the hamstrings in five months. But the versatile is not yet ready for action in the four -day national championship, which begins on Friday. Zimbabwe host England in May, with a series of five tests against India to follow. Later in the year, they go to Australia for a series of five games.
Durham has six games in the upper level of the county championship before the Zimbabwe test.
Campbell, which is also without speeds in England Brydon Carse (toe) and Mark Wood (knee), clearly indicated that no risk would be taken.
“When you look at Carse, Stokes and Wood, at this point, they are probably not likely to play for us. I expect it to be zero-everything else is an additional bonus,” he said.
“They all come back from serious injury. The facts are that they must be operational when test matches begin.
“But what we know about Stokesy is that he is almost every day by working.
Campbell has undertaken to protect Carse, 29, who has impressed since his debut in testing against Pakistan in October 2024, taking 27 counters at an average of 19.85 in five matches.
“I think Brydon Carse is probably the number one priority for England at the moment,” he said.
“With what he has shown in Test Cricket, he was born for this kind of thing. There are 11 tests during the summer and winter, and I think he will be number one on the List of England to make sure he is ready to go for this.
“Does that mean he’s going to play for us? I’m not so sure … We have known his foot problems for a year now. It’s not new, but he has to do things if he’s going to play a lot of cricket.”
(This story has not been published by NDTV staff and is automatically generated from a unionized flow.)
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