Captain Ben Stokes is unlikely to play any competitive cricket before the first fixture of England’s legacy-defining Test year.
Stokes required surgery after tearing his left hamstring on the Test tour of New Zealand in December, just five months on from a similar injury suffered playing for Northern Superchargers in the Hundred.
He has been periodically documenting his recovery on social media and was in training at Durham’s ground, Chester-le-Street on Monday. Despite turning out for the county whenever possible between injuries and international commitments in recent seasons, Durham are not expecting to have him available before the Test summer begins against Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge on May 22.
The same goes for Durham’s England quicks Brydon Carse, who is recovering from a toe operation, and Mark Wood, who is out until the middle of the summer with a knee injury picked up at the Champions Trophy.
“When you look at Carse, Stokes and Wood, at this stage they’re probably not likely to play for us. My expectation is that it’ll be zero – anything else is an added bonus,” Durham’s coach Ryan Campbell told PA Media.
“They’re coming back from serious injuries. The facts are they need to get up and running by the time the Test matches start.”
However Campbell added that Stokes’s recovery was progressing well ahead of England’s first Test meeting with Zimbabwe since 2003, a match which acts as a curtain raiser for two defining series for Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum’s “Bazball” project, at home against India and away against Australia.
“What we know about Stokesy is that he’s here nearly every single day working his butt off,” he said. “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.
