MORGAN: BEN’S READY TO RUN
Stokes is champing at the bit
EOIN MORGAN is a keen student of the Turf, so he appreciated the analogy yesterday when it was put to him that Ben Stokes resembles a thoroughbred in desperate need of a competitive gallop.
‘It certainly would be nice for Ben to get a race under his belt,’ said the England captain ahead of the first one-day international, coming up in the early hours of tomorrow, UK time. ‘He’s pulled up well since arriving here and looks incredibly fit.
‘We’re expecting him to play providing there aren’t hiccups over the last couple of days of training. When you have a racehorse of the quality of Ben you have to look after him, but at the moment it’s looking good.’
Exactly five months to the day, then, since the world of Stokes and English cricket was turned upside down by that fracas in Bristol, England’s best player will be back, as revealed in
Sportsmail yesterday, doing what he does best.
Stokes is raring to go at the start of a five-match ODI series against his country of birth that represents an important stepping stone for England towards a home World Cup next year they will be under huge pressure to win.
The class of Stokes (right) was evident in a long, authoritative net with the bat here yesterday and then he bowled around eight overs in an unbroken spell.
Joe Root told Sky Sports: ‘I look at Ben now and he’s extremely excited to start playing cricket for England again.
‘He’s a close friend of mine, I’ve played a lot with him. He’s done some magnificent things for England in the past and I look at what he’s capable of doing in the future.
‘I’m sure he’s got a lot of drive and determination to put in some really strong performances and to get back to where he was at the back end of the summer.’
England thrashed Australia 4-1 without Stokes after the Ashes, but Morgan’s side now come up against a New Zealand team who have won their last eight ODIs. ‘New Zealand are a strong side, particularly at home,’ agreed Morgan. ‘We are going to have to produce similar performances, or better ones than we managed in Australia, to win here.’ As long as Stokes is fit, England are faced with at least one tricky selection decision. Neither Jonny Bairstow nor Alex Hales deserve the axe but, with Morgan wanting six bowlers and England having promised Bairstow a run in the 50-over side, it does seem that they have to leave out Hales. ‘It’s a tough one,’ said Morgan. ‘We’ve been spoilt for batting choices over the time we’ve been together but this is a nice problem to have.’ One who will definitely play is Adil Rashid, who yesterday came out fighting against criticism of his decision to turn his back on red-ball cricket. ‘ It’s something I thought hard about and felt I had to do,’ said Rashid. ‘My mind is not in red-ball cricket, my heart’s not there. I would have been letting myself and my team down if I had carried on, so I had to let Yorkshire know.’