England’s charismatic all-rounder Ben Stokes hasn’t played a single game yet in the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup 2023, but the star cricketer is likely to return for the clash against South Africa. Stokes missed England's first three World Cup 2023 games due to a hip injury. England’s head coach, Matthew Mott, is hoping that Stokes will be fully recovered for the team’s next World Cup 2023 match against South Africa, which will be played in Mumbai on October 21.
As reported by ANI, Mott said, “We've obviously been relatively conservative with him, but the medical staff were always confident that South Africa was a game we could target. I haven't had a report on him in the last 24 hours, but before that, he was on target.” He added, “So, fingers crossed, he can tick off all the things that need to be ticked off and he comes back into that side. He's 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 that need to really assert ourselves.” England managed to win only one game against Bangladesh and suffered defeats against New Zealand and Afghanistan. Now, they have to win at least five matches to make it to the top four of the CWC 2023.Former India cricketer and chief selector of the All India Men's Selection Committee, Chetan Sharma believes that they are not going in with the right combination and the absence of Ben Stokes is hurting them badly. "Ben Stokes' unavailability is spoiling their combination. They need someone experienced like Stokes in their middle order. They are struggling with their bowling. Nobody expected Afghanistan to cause such a huge upset, England themselves wouldn't have expected something of that sort but now they need to pull themselves up. "Once Stokes regains his fitness, he should replace Liam Livingstone and England should draft Moeen Ali into the playing XI at the expense of Sam Curran," he added.
