Ben Stokes will hope to power himself through a hectic two months of Test cricket with the aid of adrenaline and cortisone, with England’s captain having to manage his body as much as his squad as he goes into the curtain-raiser against Ireland starting on Thursday.
Stokes had a cortisone injection into his troublesome left knee in March before he joined Chennai Super Kings for their Indian Premier League campaign, and he said on Wednesday that while “I don’t plan ahead too much” the treatment would be repeated “if needs be”.
England (confirmed) Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jonny Bairstow (wk), Stuart Broad, Matthew Potts, Jack Leach, Josh Tongue.
Ireland (possible) James McCollum, PJ Moor, Andy Balbirnie (c), Harry Tector, Paul Stirling, Lorcan Tucker (wk), Curtis Campher, Andy McBrine, Mark Adair, Graham Hume, Craig Young.
However, the 31-year-old England captain says he has “got into a place where I feel like I am back at 2019, 2020 in terms of my own body and fitness”. He has been helped by the fact that playing only two matches in India allowed him to concentrate on preparing himself for the summer.
“What I have done is given myself the best opportunity to play a full role with the ball this summer,” he said. “I would much rather have been playing but I was actually able to turn a disappointing situation into a positive one because I was able to concentrate on properly being able to train. Sitting here today I’m actually thinking it could have been a blessing in disguise.”
While he had a lengthy bat in the nets on Wednesday and has no concerns about his ability to build a Test innings, Stokes has not bowled all week and for all his pre-match positivity may attempt to avoid doing so once the action begins at Lord’s.
“I’ve made a promise to myself and teammates, in particular the bowlers, that I will be doing everything I possibly can to be in a position to fulfil that role,” Stokes said. “The great thing that sport and being out in the arena gives you is adrenaline. It gives you stuff you’re able to do in a game that you probably would not be able to do [in] training.”
But the decision not to select Jimmy Anderson, Ollie Robinson or Mark Wood for this game illustrates England’s approach to the Ireland Test at Lord’s. “It would be a completely different team if this was Australia tomorrow. I don’t think I’m wrong in saying that. We had to look at risk versus reward and I didn’t feel this game was worth taking the risk.”
If England have taken no risks, however, neither have they relied on safe bets. Chris Woakes, particularly given his fabulous record at Lord’s, would have been one of those but England will instead to give a debut to Josh Tongue. “Everyone knows what Chris offers to a team, so we saw this as a chance to give Tongue an opportunity and see what his character’s like and how he can influence a game,” Stokes said. “It was a great opportunity we couldn’t look past.”
Tongue’s ascent from sickbed to Test team has been meteoric – after 14 months out of the game with a shoulder complaint he came back last August, made his England Lions debut in January and will walk out at Lord’s, for the first time in any competition, in June – but Stokes revealed he has been monitored for some time.
“He’s someone who has been spoken about ever since he first played for Worcestershire,” Stokes said. “He is someone who possesses a bit more pace than most of the guys who have been spoken about as the next guys in line. Someone who is able to bowl with that extra pace and come on and change the way the game is going and have that X-factor is always great to have in your side.”
But even Tongue is more experienced than many members of the squad preparing to play only the seventh Test in Ireland’s history. It contains eight players who have played fewer than 20 first-class games and its youngest member, the 22‑year‑old Tom Mayes, made his first-class debut last week.
“Whatever team we pick there’s not going to be a lot of first-class experience,” said Andrew Balbirnie, their captain. “There are players in our group who have the skill, there’s no doubt about that, but it’s a different skill in the longer format of the game. In [white-ball cricket] you just have to have a good 10-15 overs and you can come out on the right end of the result. A Test match is completely different and that’s going to be the biggest challenge.”
