Ben Stokes will return from injury next week to make a rare appearance for Durham and thus create a selection logjam in England’s batting lineup for white-ball cricket.
The all-rounder is due to play his county’s T20 Blast fixture at Yorkshire on Thursday as a batsman following a month out with a hamstring tear and if his bowling progresses in the nets, he could then be in contention for the third Twenty20 international against India in Bristol on 8 July.
The first game against Virat Kohli’s side takes place at Old Trafford on Tuesday and the second in Cardiff three days later. With Paul Farbrace, the interim head coach, confirming a fully fit Stokes remains a shoo-in, the top six will be scrambling for spots despite a 5-0 one-day whitewash of Australia and the 28-run pasting in the one-off Twenty20 on Wednesday.
“Stokes is a three-in-one player,” said Farbrace, who is in charge while Trevor Bayliss takes 10 days of downtime. “He can bowl and he is the best fielder so you are going to bring him in as soon as he is available.”
While Joe Root is England’s sole batsman in the top 10 of the ODI world rankings and their leading century maker since the last World Cup with seven (during which time he averages 59), the Test captain may appear the vulnerable man in a T20 side he has just returned to after two years of being largely rested in the format.
His game is less power-based than others and though a 24-ball 35 at No 5 at Edgbaston on Wednesday was a handy strike-rate, only a couple of his four fours convinced in a scampering innings. A slow start of seven from eight balls was in contrast to form-rich Jonny Bairstow batting at No 6 and clearing the rope first ball. Bairstow faced only seven more and looked wasted so low down.
Jos Buttler, Jason Roy and Eoin Morgan, the captain and another six-hitter, appear undroppable and Alex Hales, the expected fall guy for Stokes in the one-day side, is in form. But Farbrace insists Root is a first-choice player given England still need an element of adaptability and craft in the line-up for when the situation dictates.
“In my mind, 100%,” Farbrace replied when asked if Root was guaranteed a T20 spot. “I can’t believe anybody else in our setup would argue against that. The best players adapt and score runs whether it is 20 overs, 50 overs or Test cricket. And he is without doubt one of the finest players in the world.”
Fielding, Farbrace said, could well dictate who misses out when Stokes returns and thus Hales, who blasted a 24-ball 49 from No 4 at Edgbaston, appears most in need of an unequivocal statement across the next two matches. It is a situation he is also facing in the one-day side despite his 147 during the men’s world-record 481 for six against Australia in Nottingham.
Such an abundance of riches, underlined by Dawid Malan missing out altogether despite four half-centuries and a strike-rate of 150 in his first five T20 internationals, is clearly a welcome problem. But it will test the man-management skills of Morgan, Bayliss and Farbrace, as well as of the national selector, Ed Smith, before the 50-over World Cup next year.
After trouncing Australia six times in a row and leaving their head coach, Justin Langer, describing an innings in the field against England’s batsmen as “a walk into the jungle”, Morgan’s side face a step up in class when India arrive. There are no plans to experiment or rotate in the Twenty20 games or the three‑match one-day series that follows.
Kohli’s team take on Ireland in their second Twenty20 at Malahide on Friday, having breezed to a 76-run win over their host on Wednesday despite a slightly rusty fielding performance in which three catches went down.
As well as having a muscular batting lineup of their own, India’s bowlers will provide a greater threat to England than Australia’s, with the wrist-spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal described by Kohli as his “x-factor” men in the middle overs.
