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After England Test captain, Ben Stokes sustained a horrific injury and had to be carried off the field during the Northern Superchargers’ match against Manchester Originals during The Hundred men’s tournament on Sunday, August 11, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has pulled out Chris Woakes from the ongoing domestic tournament. This decision from the England cricket board comes citing workload management and possible unavailability of Stokes in the upcoming Sri Lanka series.
Woakes, who serves as a pace-bowling all-rounder alongside Ben Stokes in the English team was initially slated to play Birmingham Phoenix’s upcoming matches against the Trent Rockets and Manchester originals, but the franchise on Monday, August 12 confirmed that the cricketer is “unavailable” for remainder of the tournament.
Ben Stokes likely to miss Sri Lanka Test series
The England red-ball skipper, Ben Stokes is likely to miss the entire Test series against Sri Lanka after getting injured during The Hundred. As per ESPNcricinfo, Stokes will be undergoing a scan on August 13 and the result of the same will decide his participation against Sri Lanka.
It is to be noted that the 33-year-old limped off the ground during the match against Manchester Originals and later was seen on crutches. Northern Superchargers’ captain Harry Brook confirmed that the injury doesn’t look great and in case it doesn’t improve, the all-rounder will miss his first Test series. Moreover, Zak Crawley and Dillion Pennington are also ruled out of the series with Jordan Cox and Olly Stone earning a call-up.
England’s squad for Test series vs Sri Lanka
Ben Stokes (C) (doubtful), Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir, Harry brook, Jordan Cox, ben Duckett, Dan Lawrence, Ollie Pope (VC), Matthew Potts, Joe Root, Jamie Smith, Olly Stone, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood.
