"My body is nowhere near ready to even be thinking about competitive bowling" - Ben Stokes
England captain Ben Stokes has said that he's unlikely to think of bowling anytime soon, having undergone a surgery recently. But the seam-bowling all-rounder added that he will try his best to fulfil his full role.
A troublesome knee forced Stokes to undergo a surgery after the 2023 World Cup. The 32-year-old played as a pure batter in the 10-team tournament in India and faced a tight rehab schedule ahead of the India tour.
At a presser, Stokes admitted that bowling is not a natural thing to him right now but reckons he should get in shape for that during the home summer. As quoted by The Telegraph, he said:
"Bowling is such an unnatural thing for the body to go through that it’s not going to be a case of right, I’m good now, straight back into bowling. Remember the last ball I bowled was actually in the Ashes at Lord’s (in June)."
"So my body is nowhere near ready to even be thinking about competitive bowling at the moment, but if I get to a stage in this tour where we can start building myself back up to bowling; then, hopefully, by the summer, that’s where I’ve earmarked as playing a full role I want to be doing."
Stokes' knee injury first surfaced during the New Zealand tour in February 2023 and missed almost the entire IPL edition to keep himself fresh for the Ashes.
"It’s not like you have surgery, and you are immediately better" - Ben Stokes
Stokes added that his surgery was more than only a clean-up job and hopes to play for a few more years for England:
"I had some stitches put in my meniscus, and I had a big bone spur taken out of my knee. It was a bit more than (just) a clean-out. It’s not like you have surgery, and you are immediately better. Surgery is always the last option."
"Surgeries can go very well, but they can also sometimes not go too well, and set people back even further, and potentially even end careers. I'm 32 now, and sport isn’t here forever. I want to play for England as long as I possibly can. The older you get, the harder you work."
England have also named their XI for the first Test against India, beginning on Thursday.