{"id":164495,"date":"2026-05-07T07:01:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T12:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/?p=164495"},"modified":"2026-05-07T07:01:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T12:31:10","slug":"ben-stokes-100-per-cent-ready-to-bowl-on-return-to-cricket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/?p=164495","title":{"rendered":"Ben Stokes \u2018100 per cent ready to bowl\u2019 on return to cricket"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"content-body-70951182\" itemprop=\"articleBody\">Ben Stokes is expected to bat and bowl for county side Durham as he returns to action for the first time since England\u2019s disastrous Ashes campaign.<\/p>\n<p>The England captain is set to face Worcestershire in a second division County Championship match starting on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>The all-rounder suffered a freak injury when he was hit in the face by a ball during a net session while coaching academy players in February.<\/p>\n<p>Stokes, 34, who suffered a groin strain during England\u2019s recent 4-1 Ashes humbling in Australia, had to undergo reconstructive surgery.<\/p>\n<p><b>Also read | <a href=\"https:\/\/sportstar.thehindu.com\/cricket\/bangladesh-vs-pakistan-1st-test-preview-babar-azam-injury-news-ban-v-pak\/article70951114.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Bangladesh, Pakistan set to renew Test rivalry in Mirpur; Babar Azam\u2019s fitness in doubt<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n<p>Durham coach Ryan Campbell said Stokes could open the bowling at New Road in the absence of West Indies fast bowler Kemar Roach.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019ll be bowling for us, 100 per cent,\u201d Campbell told Britain\u2019s Press Association news agency.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn one of the innings he might even go with the new ball, that\u2019s in our thinking.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe won\u2019t expect him to bowl a million overs, it will be probably be around 20 to 25 overs for the game, but once he gets into the battle it\u2019s hard to get him out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>England\u2019s international season starts with a three-Test series against New Zealand at Lord\u2019s commencing on June 4.<\/p>\n<p>Stokes enjoyed a revival as a Test-match bowler last year, taking 33 wickets at just over 23 apiece.<\/p>\n<p>England has struggled to fill the position of opening bowler since the retirements of James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Chris Woakes but Stokes\u2019 recent injury record counts against using him in that slot.<\/p>\n<p>Campbell underlined his plan was designed to benefit Durham rather than England.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve made it very clear, Stokesy is here as a member of our team to help win a game of cricket for Durham, not to get ready for England,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"publish-time\" id=\"end-of-article\">Published on May 07, 2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/sportstar.thehindu.com\/cricket\/ben-stokes-injury-fitness-update-county-championships-durham-vs-worcestershire\/article70951182.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ben Stokes is expected to bat and bowl for county side Durham as he returns to action for the first time since England\u2019s disastrous Ashes campaign. The England captain is set to face Worcestershire in a second division County Championship match starting on Friday. The all-rounder suffered a freak injury when he was hit in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":164496,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-164495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2226308255.jpg","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgnRh4-GN9","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=164495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/164496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=164495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=164495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=164495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}