England out of Stokes for second Test vs Pak

Southampton, Aug. 12: England may have won the series opener against Pakistan but the absence of Ben Stokes leaves them with arguably the bigger selection headache going into Thursday’s second Test at Southampton.

Pakistan were much the better side for much of last week’s first Test at Old Trafford and, despite a second-innings collapse, were still favourites to win when they reduced England to 117-5 in pursuit of a target of 277.

But a sixth-wicket partnership of 139 between Chris Woakes (84 not out) and Jos Buttler (75) turned the tide as England went 1-0 up in a three-match series on Saturday.

Since England won with more than a day to spare in Manchester, it has been announced that star allrounder Stokes will miss the rest of the series as a result of travelling to New Zealand to be with his ill father.

A quad injury meant that the end of England’s

● Hosts are left with a selection headache with star allrounder Ben Stokes out of the Southampton Test.

● Stokes has left for New Zealand to be with his ailing father and will miss the remainder of the series.

2-1 series win over the West Indies last month — a campaign that marked international cricket’s return from the Coronavirus lockdown — and the first Test against Pakistan saw vice-captain Stokes effectively deployed as a specialist batsman by skipper Joe Root.

Stokes, however, still took two important wickets on the third evening against Pakistan.

The obvious move for England would be to recall batsman Zak Crawley, who has missed out on the last two matches while an extra bowler has been deployed because of Stokes’ injury problems.

Buttler underlined his skill in a run-chase last week but the wicketkeeper, by his own admission, had a poor match with the gloves. England do have the option to recall Ben Foakes, widely regarded as a better keeper, and play Buttler as a specialist batsman.

England are in the middle of a sequence of six Tests in seven weeks, a gruelling schedule that has seen them adopt a policy of rotating their quicks. —