Desperate England fret on Stokes injury
ENGLAND’S preparations for tomorrow’s must-win final Test against Pakistan in Leeds have been rocked by an injury to Ben Stokes.
The talismanic all-rounder is a major doubt for the series finale after he pulled up with a tight left hamstring during fielding practice at Headingley yesterday.
England are so worried about Stokes they have called up Surrey’s uncapped 19-year-old all-rounder Sam Curran as cover.
The injury concern over Stokes, the heart and soul of England’s dressing-room, is another damaging blow to Joe Root’s men following the humiliating nine-wicket defeat at Lord’s last weekend.
Coming after a woeful winter in Australia and New Zealand, that result extended England’s dismal run to seven defeats in 10 Tests and piled the pressure on Root and coach Trevor Bayliss.
Opener Alastair Cook has admitted the squad are playing for their futures this week.
“We need to play better,” said Cook. “Test futures are on the line. If you want to play cricket for England, you’ve got to deliver, otherwise we’ll be looking for other employment.
“That’s the nature of the beast and, fundamentally, we’re not producing out in the middle. But we have to stick together as a group. The last thing you can do is play the blame game, and the trick is to not carry the negatives from the first Test with us to Headingley.”
But James Anderson, the leader of England’s attack, has told his team-mates to ignore the “noise” from critics such as former skipper Michael Vaughan as they bid to kick-start their summer.
Vaughan argued things need to be “shaken up” at Headingley by dropping one of Anderson or Stuart Broad – England’s two all-time leading Test wickettakers.
Unsurprisingly, it is not a view shared by Anderson. “Obviously, I’m going to disagree,” he said. “We have nearly 950 Test wickets between us. We’re doing the best we can to turn this team around.
“I know we’ve been on a really bad run of form this winter and the first Test here, and in these situations you need players to stand up and put in matchwinning performances. We’ll try to block out the noise from whoever is shouting out. “When you suffer a heavy defeat there’s always a lot of noise around. Lots more opinions come out. “The outside noise is always there and it’s a bit louder when you perform badly. That’s something you’ve just got to deal with as a sportsman and block out as best you can.” As for the reasons behind England’s terrible form, Anderson has a simple answer. “I don’t think there is a problem,” he said. “I think we’re potentially low on confidence. “You suffer a few defeats and you need something special to turn it around. So it’s going to take some special individual performances this week.” Anderson also called for calm on the future of Bayliss as coach.
THE WAITING GAME: Mark Wood, Stuart Broad and Stokes yesterday
“Trevor can’t come out there with us and tell us how to bowl,” he said. “It’s up to us to take that responsibility on our shoulders.”
There was short shrift, too, from a man who has 535 Test wickets, for the critics who say that he bowled too short at Lord’s.
“Some people think they might know better than me but I’d like to think that, after 15 years of playing Test cricket, I know which lengths to bowl on certain pitches,” he said.
“It’s not as simple as saying, ‘We’ve got to bowl fuller’ and just chucking it up there.
“You’ve got to be patient. I’ve always looked at it as almost a game of chess. You’ve got to outmanoeuvre the batsman.”