England Test captain Ben Stokes is unlikely to feature in the 2025 County Championship ahead of the home team’s five-match Test series against India.
Stokes is currently undergoing a rehabilitation from the hamstring surgery he suffered in early 2025, in the aftermath of two muscle tears in six months. He has not played cricket matches since his surgery.
England’s Test summer begins on May 22, with a one-off game against Zimbabwe, followed by five Tests against India, from June 20. From November 21, they will be playing another five-match Test series, the Ashes in Australia.
According to an ESPNcricinfo report, Durham head coach Ryan Campbell does not feel that Stokes will be part of the county’s Championship games ahead of the India Tests. Two of his Durham teammates, Brydon Carse and Mark Wood, are also currently injured, and are likely to miss the games as well. Durham are scheduled to play six Division One fixtures ahead of the Zimbabwe Test.
“At this stage, they’re [Stokes, Wood, Carse] probably not likely to play for us,” said Campbell. “My expectation is that it’ll be zero: anything else is an added bonus. They’re all coming back from serious injuries. The facts are that they need to get up and running by the time the Test matches start.
“What we know about Stokesy is that he’s here nearly every single day working his butt off. The guy had hamstring surgery and was in the next day lifting weights, which I couldn’t believe. He sets the bar, wherever he is. He’s such a hard-working bloke and he'll do whatever it takes to be up and running for England, which is really exciting for England fans.
“For Durham fans, if he happens to play a game or two along the way, great. If he doesn’t, I know he’ll be checking the scores and ringing me to tell me what we should and shouldn't be doing.”
From 70 Championship games, Stokes has 3,546 runs at 33.45 and 177 wickets at 27.44. However, his appearances have been sporadic as he grew as an international cricketer and later became the Test captain. The recurrent injuries have not helped, either. Only nine of these 70 games have comes since the start of the summer of 2017.
Durham coach: Brydon Carse is born for Test cricket
Campbell also spoke on Carse: “I think Brydon Carse is probably the number one priority for England right now. With what he’s shown in Test cricket, he’s born for that sort of stuff. There’s 11 Tests over the summer and winter, and I think he’s going to be number one on England’s list to make sure that he's ready to go for that.
“We've known about his foot problems for a year now. It’s not new, but he needs to get it right if he’s going to be playing a lot of Test cricket.”
From five Tests since his debut in October 2024, Carse has taken 27 wickets at 19.85, including 10-106 in his third match, at Christchurch in November.
