Joe Root is without several key players before a five-Test series against Virat Kohli’s dangerous-looking visitors
Tom Harrison admitted recently he had given up trying to guess the next bombshell to hit English cricket and it is fair to say the withdrawal of Ben Stokes from the marquee series of the summer – five Tests against the might of India – qualifies as such.
The chief executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board was speaking about the threat Covid-19 poses to the summer and though details of the mental health issue that, along with a finger injury, has led Stokes to rule himself out indefinitely are understandably light, the pandemic can only have been a contributing factor.
Certainly it throws the England team into a degree of turmoil, in terms of the immediate challenge of India and looking forward to a winter with both a T20 World Cup and an Ashes tour. This four-month stint on the road is generating angst behind the scenes and a desire among players to have families join them in Australia will only increase after seeing a seemingly impervious colleague call for time out.
Their reaction to the loss of both England’s heartbeat in the dressing room and a keystone all-rounder on the field has typically been one of unwavering support, as was the case when Stokes missed the second half of last summer to be with his father, Ged, in New Zealand before he died from brain cancer in December.