Star all-rounder Ben Stokes remains in doubt for this summer’s Ashes series, amidst expectations he will miss the upcoming T20 World Cup in October and November.
Stokes announced in July that he would take an “indefinite” break from cricket to manage his mental health, and to fully recover from a broken finger he sustained at the Indian Premier League.
England’s 15-man squad for the World Cup will be named later this week, but they have until early October to make any changes.
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“We are going to leave that one late, to give it our best chance,” coach Chris Silverwood said.
“Whatever support Ben needs he will get from us.
“I haven’t spoken to him as yet. I want to give him as much space as possible. There are people talking to him outside of me but it is something we will be revisiting shortly. I will not be putting pressure on him or rushing him.”
England’s opening match of the World Cup is against West Indies on October 23. There’s less than a month between the end of the World Cup and the start of the Ashes on December 8.
Stokes made his Test debut in Australian in 2013-14, but hasn’t played a Test in Australia since that series, having missed the 2017-18 tour after being arrested outside a nightclub in September 2017. He was charged with affray but later acquitted.
Australia’s strict quarantine rules would appear to make it less likely Stokes would travel here for the Ashes.
Former captain Michael Vaughan said recently that he would be “amazed” if England sent a full-strength side to Australia, while the ECB’s Ashley Giles said in July that ‘bubble-fatigue’ was a big factor in Stokes’ decision to take a break.
“The demands on our athletes to prepare and play elite sport are relentless in a typical environment, but the ongoing pandemic has acutely compounded this,” he said.
“Spending significant amounts of time away from family, with minimal freedoms, is extremely challenging. The cumulative effect of operating almost continuously in these environments over the last 16 months has had a major impact on everyone’s wellbeing.”
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