The withdrawal of England captain Ben Stokes and Test teammate Gus Atkinson from their respective County Championship matches on Sunday seems to indicate that they will be eligible to play in the series finale against New Zealand at Trent Bridge next week.
Following the hosts’ victory in the series opener at Lord’s, the two were removed from the current second Test at the Oval for violating a team curfew during an altercation in a nightclub in London.
Stokes and Atkinson were allowed to participate in domestic competitions, with Atkinson playing for Surrey and Stokes playing for Durham in the first two days of Championship matches that began on Friday, even though they are still under investigation by English cricket authorities.
Before scoring 95 against Northamptonshire on Saturday, the 35-year-old Stokes had a long bowling stint. This was the all-rounder’s highest score in any cricket match since a century in the fourth Test against India in July of last year. Atkinson, a 28-year-old fast-medium bowler, claimed four wickets in Surrey’s opening innings against Glamorgan.
In what is believed to be an effort to ensure they are fit for the third Test at Trent Bridge beginning on Thursday, both players were then pulled before the third day of those games.
The independent Cricket Regulator and the England and Wales Cricket Board have not yet finished their investigations into the duo’s behaviour.
Until the conclusion of the second Test at the Oval, where the hosts could lose badly on Sunday’s last day of play in south London, no formal confirmation of the results of those investigations or an England squad for the third Test is anticipated.
Meanwhile, Stokes was slammed by the legendary Ian Botham for violating a team curfew, who expressed his disapproval of “how you justify what happened.”
“Some people just don’t learn, do they? It’s as simple as that. We as a club when he (Stokes) had the problems in Bristol (in 2017), we stood by him. I don’t see how you can justify what happened after the game (at Lord’s), especially when you were probably very much in charge of when the curfew is, midnight,” Botham, president of Stokes’ county side Durham, was quoted by AFP telling the Stick to Cricket podcast in comments reported by the BBC.
Botham, a former captain of England who amassed 5,200 runs and claimed 383 wickets in 102 Test matches, stated that he wouldn’t be stunned if Stokes decided to give up cricket altogether.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if Ben was to lose the (England) captaincy, he probably might walk away from the game. But I just don’t know,” Botham said.
