Early bird Nowell out to hitch ride on the Lions trail
England in sweat over knee scan for Stokes
STOKES: Brilliant ton on Saturday ENGLAND are facing having to redraft their Champions Trophy planning if a scan on Ben Stokes’s knee tomorrow delivers bad news.
Coach Trevor Bayliss rings the changes at Lord’s today for the final ODI of the series against South Africa to rest key players, with Jonny Bairstow replacing Stokes.
England moved to plug the gaps caused by their mini-injury crisis yesterday by calling up Middlesex seamers Steven Finn and Toby Roland-Jones and Hampshire’s Liam Dawson. But the management insisted that there were no changes planned to the Champions Trophy squad.
The injury to Stokes is causing cause for concern given his importance with bat and ball.
He starred with the former at the Ageas Bowl on Saturday, hitting 101 in 79 balls, as England wrapped up the series against the Proteas with a game to spare. But for the second game running he was unable to bowl more than a handful of overs owing to soreness in his left knee.
Medics will assess him this morning but a scan tomorrow is expected to pinpoint the damage. On Saturday Stokes admitted that the pain on the outside of his left knee was causing him trouble in his delivery stride.
Initial hopes that it was bruising have faded and the medical staff will now assess whether it is a return of the problem which kept him out of action for almost two months last summer.
There is no suggestion that Stokes will be replaced in the squad for the ICC event which for England starts on Thursday against Bangladesh at the Oval.
Even if he cannot bowl he is too influential with the bat to replace.
But his absence as a bowler would dramatically alter the balance of the side and would more than likely mean only one of Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali could play at any one time.
Finn and Roland-Jones are likely to play today while Mark Wood is rested and Chris Woakes continues to recover from injury.
ENGLAND (probable): TV:
the battle with Wasps twice. They were 14-3 up just before half-time thanks to Nowell’s score and another from Phil Dollman. But the match was turned on its head when Jimmy Gopperth scored before the break and Elliot Daly made the most of a lucky bounce to put Wasps ahead. Exeter needed a Gareth Steenson penalty 54 seconds from the end to take the game into extra-time, in which the fly-half’s three-pointer with two minutes left won it. Wasps flanker James Haskell joined the Lions yesterday keen to park the memories of defeat. “I’m all about winning,” he said. “So this is frustrating – but it’s all about picking yourself up.”
WASPS EXETER – – Tries: Pens: Tries: Pens:
He may have to play as a batsman
Cons: Cons: