Ben Stokes is in injury doubt for England’s World Cup opener against New Zealand tomorrow (October 5), after a hip niggle kept the all-rounder out of the side’s pre-tournament warm-up matches.
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England captain Jos Buttler revealed that a call will be made tomorrow morning on Stokes’ participation in the match, which will get underway in Ahmedabad at 2pm local time. Stokes did not feature in either of England’s warm-up matches over the last week, with all other members of England’s squad getting game time.
In a press conference on Wednesday (October 4), Buttler played down the concerns: “We will see how everyone pulls up, we’ve been nursing a few guys over the last month or so. Hopefully, we’ll have a clean bill of health to pick from… He [Stokes] doesn’t play many of them [warm-up games]. He’s got a slight niggle in his hip but fingers crossed that it will be good news for us.
“Just to clarify he’s got a slight niggle… we’ll know more when the guys arrive at training today. I think that we’ll make the right call with him. If he’s not fit to play then he’s not fit to play, and if he is then we can make that decision but it’s not the time to take big risks on someone at the start of the tournament. Nearer the end maybe you would take more of a risk with injuries but it’s going to be a long tournament. We’ll see how the guys pull up at training today and post-training we’ll make our decisions.”
Stokes hit England’s highest-ever ODI score against New Zealand in a bilateral series in England earlier this month. Batting at No.4 he hit 182 off 124 balls to surpass the record previously held by Jason Roy.
England have several options in their squad to replace Stokes if he is not fit to play. Harry Brook was a last-minute call-up to their XV as a spare batter, while a combination of Moeen Ali and Liam Livingstone at Nos.5 and 6 could also be an option.
