ICC Cricket World Cup 2023: Ben Stokes’ Dream for England Is Still Alive Against Afghanistan

At the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Friday, England’s net session featured some intriguing rivalries, including Harry Brook vs. Joe Root and Dawid Willey vs. Jonny Bairstow.

But every few minutes, Ben Stokes of England caught the attention of a few members of the media and other ground staff.

So much so that a senior women’s team member from Delhi who was watching the squad train on the main field was struck speechless by the English team’s practice.

She pointed out Ben Stokes to her colleague, saying, “He looks so smart.”

Ben Stokes is one of the finest all-round players and has been nothing short of a dream come true for England. Any club would kill to have him on their squad. For a while, England had been lucidly dreaming of bringing Stokes out of his ODI retirement to participate in the World Cup.

However, England’s ambition of seeing their hero play has been reduced to a pipe dream due to Stokes’ injury.

A football game, some warm-up exercises, and an intriguing fielding drill in which two players ran from point A to point B, turned around, picked up the ball, and then threw it back to point A were all part of the team’s routine.

Stokes continued to work out alone, concentrating on his endurance and fitness. The all-arounder measured the distance and ran many brief sprints. Stokes seems to be making a full recovery from his hip injury.

Stokes maintained his practice session for about 50 minutes on the main field as other players headed to the nets. The southpaw unexpectedly turned up to the nets when it seemed like he would not. He patiently padded himself and waited before engaging in a lengthy hitting practice.

Notably, he did not encounter any frontline or net bowlers. He only participated in throwdowns for around thirty minutes. While he often seemed to timing the ball fluidly, there were a few moments when he attempted to play a lofted shot but instead skied the ball. The southpaw felt disappointed with himself.

He just faced throw downs, which is more proof that he won’t play in Sunday’s World Cup match against Afghanistan.

A significant absence from the training session was Chris Woakes, who could also miss the Afghanistan match owing to sickness.

One of Dawid Willey or Gus Atkinson, who bowled for lengthier periods of time in the nets, might take Woakes’ spot. Willey was bowling to Bairstow as Atkinson was attempting to break down Root in the next net. Despite some solid bowling from Willey and Atkinson, the hitters seemed more at ease spending more time in the nets.

For a long time, Root competed against Harry Brook’s spin, and the two enjoyed one other’s company. While Root sometimes destroyed Brook, Brook did manage to defeat Root on a few occasions. Brook also spoke in a kind way, although some of her statements were not appropriate for the family.

Interestingly, Root received throwdowns from captain Jos Buttler during his second round of batting while he eschewed hitting in the nets.

After taking a few throw downs, Dawid Malan, who scored a game-winning 140 against Bangladesh, faced the spin pair of Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali simultaneously.

Rashid, Willey, Atkinson, and Reece Topley all got hits against throw downs and net bowlers after the top order finished batting in the nets. It wasn’t shocking that the team had an enviable depth of batting.

The crew remained primarily concentrated during the session, but the atmosphere was relaxed thanks to the background music, which included EDM tracks like Don’t you worry kid by Swedish House Mafia and New Rules by Dua Lipa.