ICC Cricket World Cup 2023: Ben Stokes' return date revealed

Ben Stokes has not played a single game so far in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023.

England’s 2019 World Cup hero Ben Stokes is yet to play a game in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 in India. After landing in India, Stokes suffered a hip niggle and missed the first three games for England. Stokes came out of retirement to play in one more World Cup event for his national side but has suffered a hip injury that prevented him from playing in the tournament so far. All-rounder Stokes is now willing to make his comeback soon. 

England have struggled to find momentum in their campaign and lost to Afghanistan in their last league encounter. England had a poor start to the tournament against New Zealand and then made a decent comeback against Bangladesh but a surprising loss against Afghanistan has put their campaign in trouble. They will be taking on South Africa in their next encounter and they will likely be boosted by the presence of star all-rounder Ben Stokes. 

Ben Stokes to make a comeback against South Africa

England’s head coach Mathew Mott looks confident about Stokes’ participation on Saturday at Wankhede Stadium and this was also their original target with Ben Stokes. Mott said, “We have obviously been relatively conservative with him, but the medical staff were always confident that South Africa was a game we could target. I have not had a report on him in 24 hours but before that, he was on target.” Ben Stokes played only 3 ODIs before the World Cup. 

England head coach Mathew Mott also revealed that Ben Stokes' presence in the camp felt like the spiritual leader of the group and he had a chat with the team after the team's loss against Afghanistan. Mott added, “He is like the spiritual leader of the group in many ways, and he certainly spoke really well after the game the other day and spoke about the need to really assert ourselves.” England lost to Afghanistan by 69 runs in Delhi. 

England batsmen looked timid against Afghanistan spin bowlers and played most of their overs on the back foot. This gave Afghanistan a golden chance to cause a major upset in the World Cup 2023. South Africa have also lost their last game against inexperienced Netherlands and both these sides will be looking to bounce back from their losses. Wankhede Stadium will host its first game in the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup 2023.