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England national cricket team captain Ben Stokes has been dropped from Durham’s remaining County Championship match against Northamptonshire at the request of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). Apart from Ben Stokes, Gus Atkinson has also been removed after the nightclub incident, the investigation of which is still ongoing.
Captain Stokes and fast bowler Atkinson were ruled out of the second Test starting on Wednesday pending investigation into the incident at a London nightclub. However, both were allowed to play domestic cricket, with Stokes playing for Durham and Atkinson for Surrey in the first two days of matches which began on Friday.
Ben Stokes and Gus Atkinson withdraw from county games
He was pulled before the third day, thus Stokes would miss Durham’s match against Northamptonshire, while Atkinson would miss Surrey’s match against Glamorgan. He has now been ruled out of their County Championship games, which suggests he will be ready to play for England in the third Test against New Zealand.
Netherlands all-rounder Colin Ackerman has replaced Stokes in the Durham 11. The Dutch all-rounder would now like to contribute to the game. Stokes scored a brilliant 95 runs in the match.
Why was Ben Stokes absent in the second test against England?
Ben Stokes and Gus Atkinson were involved in a physical altercation with a rugby player named Totoa Auwa, breaking team curfew protocols. He had a physical altercation with the former Samoa A and Samoa Under-20 captain, who is 6 feet 5 inches (1.95 m) tall. Whose video went viral and he also broke the team curfew by going to the club.
Thus, both cricketers were suspended from the second Test match against New Zealand. In the absence of Ben Stokes in the match, Joe Root was given the leadership role. The Kiwi team scored a huge score of 463 runs for the home team and won the series. If they achieve this target, it will be England’s most successful run-chase in the longest format of the game.
We missed him – Josh Tong on Stokes not playing in the second test
After Ben Stokes missed the second Test, his teammate Josh Tongue missed his leadership on the field and said, “We’ve missed him, but obviously we’ve got a lot of leaders in our team as well. Rooty, stepping in as captain, is obviously an incredible player and an incredible leader as well. It’s been good.”
“Obviously we have our little talks at the end of the day playing, and we always go around the boys and if we have something wrong during the day we try to say as much as we can and then obviously praise each other as well.”
There is speculation that Stokes may also consider retiring from Test cricket and leaving the captaincy role. However, confirmation has not come. But Stokes has been an integral part of England’s Test setup, especially under Brendon McCullum, who introduced a new style of play called ‘baseball’.