England lost a very satisfying captain in Ben Stokes on this Tuesday who accepted that he became “emotional” due to yet another injury he incurred during the defeat of the third Test with New Zealand, but he would continue to carry on with his workload regarding bowling. Stokes, however finds another learning of the “incredibly disappointing” recurrence of a hamstring injury that disqualified him from the pitch imposed in between a spell on the third day in Hamilton Monday.
Stokes should have known the ‘very’ disappointing thing about his hamstring injury recurrence which cut him from the field mid-spell on Monday’s third day in Hamilton before he learned the severity.
He had suffered the exact same thing in August while bowling and was out for four Tests in two months.
Stokes batted not in the second innings of England as the risk of further damage was not worth it as the tourists collapsed for 234-all out losing the Test by 423 runs.
The England talisman admitted that he reacted quite negatively right at the time after the injury because it meant another long time of rehab because he had also come back from knee surgery earlier this year.
“I worked my ar** off to get to where I was in this game, in particular, with my body,” he said. “It just seems like sod’s law that the one time this long that I feel young again, something happens. Obviously, incredibly disappointed walking off yesterday, very emotional about the whole thing.”
A night’s sleep seems to work wonders mentally, besides the understanding that the next Test for England is not until May when they host a one-off match against Zimbabwe and India on a five-Test tour.
He planned to do proper recovery before going back to cricket.
However, he said he had no intention of reducing his bowling workload, even though the latest injury happened during a Test when he was delivering his 36th over.
When you take the emotion out of it, you realize that walking out there means you are always putting yourself at risk of an injury.
“I worked super hard to get myself into position to play the role I did in this game, and it’s just one of those unfortunate things.
So no, I ain’t holding back.