Ben Stokes has revealed that he will have knee surgery at the end of England’s “crap” Cricket World Cup campaign in the hope of being fully fit for the New Year’s Test tour to India.
Stokes has been struggling with a chronic left-knee issue over the past 18 months but has refrained from going into public detail on the exact nature of the problem or, until now, his plan to fix it.
England could be knocked out of the World Cup when they face Australia in Ahmedabad on Saturday and, barring a miracle, their title defence will end with their final group game against Pakistan next Saturday.
Stokes will then go under the knife and expects to be sidelined for “five to seven weeks” before returning to lead the Test side in a five-match series due to start in Hyderabad on January 25.
“There was a lot of time put into deciding when to get it done,” Stokes said. “I want to get back to what I’ve been doing prior to the 18 months to when I’ve had this injury. We’ll just see how everything goes, see how I respond to the surgery and all the rehab as well.
“I don’t think the surgery is going to have any hindrance on me taking part in the series in India.”
"The problem is that we’ve been crap... it’s just been a disaster and there’s no point sugar-coating it"
The issue limited Stokes to bowling only 29 overs during the summer’s Ashes and it was initially thought he would use a break in the schedule to undergo surgery immediately after that series.
Instead, the 32-year-old came out of ODI retirement in a bid to help England’s World Cup defence but under the proviso that he would play only as a specialist batter.
“It’s been a big hindrance on me, and affected what I can do for the team,” Stokes added.
“Obviously, that [being an all-rounder] is what I want to be doing. You’d hope that [surgery] means I can get back to doing what I’ve been known for, playing a role as a batter, and playing a role as a bowler as well.”
England sit bottom of the World Cup table having lost five of their six group matches so far, all in heavy fashion. Players and pundits alike have been at a loss to explain the dramatic scale of their implosion, but Stokes pulled no punches in his assessment of a desperate campaign.
“The problem is that we’ve been crap,” he said. “That’s honestly speaking, we’ve been crap.
“Everything we’ve tried throughout this World Cup — from trying to put pressure back on the opposition, to trying to soak up the pressure in a different way — has just not worked.
"Every opportunity we’ve had in front of us to take control of the game, the opposition have managed to pull it back towards them.
“We’ve just not been able to put a full game together, or even get close to putting a full game together, except against Bangladesh.
“We know as a team and individuals we’ve been nowhere near good enough to compete in a World Cup. It’s incredibly disappointing because we know we’re so, so much better than we’ve shown out here. It’s just been a disaster and there’s no point sugar-coating it.”
Despite delaying surgery to be part of what has turned out to be a miserable World Cup tournament for England, Stokes insisted he had “no regrets whatsoever” over his retirement U-turn.
He said: “Playing in a World Cup for your country… if we were in a better position I wouldn’t be asked that question. It is an easy question to ask when things have gone wrong. It was the right decision.”
