The England National Cricket Team captain Ben Stokes has been removed from the remainder of Durham’s County Championship match against Northamptonshire at the request of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). Apart Ben Stokes, Gus Atkinson has also been withdrawn following the nightclub incident, the investigation of which is still in process.
Captain Stokes and fast bowler Atkinson were ruled out of the second Test, which began on Wednesday, awaiting an inquiry into an incident at a London nightclub. However, both were permitted to play domestic cricket, with Stokes playing for Durham and Atkinson for Surrey in the opening two days of matches that began on Friday.
Ben Stokes and Gus Atkinson pulled out of County games
They were pulled before day three, thus Stokes will not play in Durham’s match against Northamptonshire, while Atkinson will miss Surrey’s game against Glamorgan. Now they have been pulled from their County Championship games, which suggests that they will be ready to play for England in the third Test against New Zealand.
Netherlands all-rounder Colin Ackermann has replaced Stokes in the Durham 11. The Dutch all-rounder will now be looking to contribute to the game. Stokes in the match scored a brilliang 95 runs.
Why was Ben Stokes absent in the 2nd Test vs England?
Ben Stokes and Gus Atkinson were involved in a physical altercation with a rugby player named Totoa Auva, breaking the team curfew protocols. They had a physical fight with the former Samoa A and Samoa Under-20 captain, who stands 6 ft 5 in (1.95 m) tall. The video of which was circulated, and they also broke the team curfew by visiting the club.
Thus, both cricketers were suspended from the 2nd Test match against New Zealand. Joe Root was handed the leadership role in the absence of Ben Stokes in the match. The Kiwis set up a massive total of 463 runs for the home side to chase and seal the series. If they achieve this target, it will be England’s highest successful run-chase in the longest format of the game.
We’ve missed him- Josh Tongue on Stokes missing 2nd Test
After Ben Stokes missed the 2nd Test, his teammate Josh Tongue missed his leadership on the field, and he stated «We’ve missed him, but obviously we’ve got a lot of leaders in our team as well. Rooty, stepping in as captain, is obviously an unbelievable player and an unbelievable leader as well. It’s been good.»
«We obviously have our little debriefs at the end of days’ plays, and we always go around the lads and we try and say as much as we can if we got things wrong on the day and then obviously praise each other as well.»
There have been speciulations of Stokes might also be considering retiring from Test cricket and also leaving the captaincy role. However, the confirmation has not come. But Stokes has been an integral part of England’s test setup especially under Brendon McCullum who introduced a new style of play named ‘BazBall’.
