Ben Stokes is on target to be fit for England’s 2023 World Cup match against South Africa on October 21 (Saturday), after he missed the first three games of the competition due to a hip injury.
England need to win five of their last six World Cup matches to have a strong chance of progressing to the semi-finals.
The return of Stokes, who was hoping for a comeback against South Africa, could strengthen them further. The Test captain was struggling in the lead-up to the game against Afghanistan in Delhi and, according to Jos Buttler, ultimately failed to make the squad despite coming “close” to playing.
England head coach Matthew Mott gave an update on Stokes, saying he is “confident” he will play against the Proteas. “We were obviously relatively conservative with him, but the medical staff were always confident that South Africa was a match we could target,” Mott said on Tuesday. “We have not received any reports about him in the last 24 hours, but before that he achieved his goal.
“So he was able to check off all the boxes that he needed to check and he came back to this page.” He’s like the spiritual leader of the group in many ways. And that’s exactly what happened after the incident. In the game the other day, he talked a lot about the need to assert yourself. ”
Stokes also spoke to his teammates after the defeat in Afghanistan, urging them to play more aggressively in the remaining games. He was also speaking to the camp after England lost to Ireland in the 2022 T20 World Cup following his fourth consecutive win, including the final.
Stokes, who starred in the 2019 World Cup final, has scored 3,159 runs in 108 ODIs at an average of 40.50 and also picked up 74 wickets since his debut in 2011.
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