Ahmedabad: Well-known England all-rounder Ben Stokes is set to undergo knee surgery after the ongoing World Cup in his bid to regain full fitness ahead of next year's five-Test series in India.
The 32-year-old, who has been struggling with his knee for at least 18 months, initially planned to go for the procedure after the Ashes series in July but later decided to come out of retirement to play in the ODI World Cup.
Stokes, the Test captain, has been playing as a specialist batter in the ongoing marquee tournament. "I am having surgery after the World Cup. Hopefully, I'll be fine for the Test series in India," Stokes told reporters on the eve of their World Cup clash against Australia here.
"When we go to those meetings we generally take a physio and doctor and they start talking. I just turn up, go to sleep, wake up and hope it is better." England are set to play five Tests in India starting with the opening match from January 25.
Ben Stokes' presence didn't help much as England's title defence lay in tatters after losing five of their six games. "I think the problem is that we've been crap. To be honest with you, we've been crap," Stokes opined.
"Everything we've tried throughout this World Cup, through trying to put pressure back onto the opposition in a way in which we know, or trying to soak up the pressure in a different way, which we know we've done before and been successful with, it's just not worked. Every opportunity that we've had in front of us where we feel like we can take control of the game, the opposition's managed to get it back towards them. And we've just not been able to even got close to putting a full game together except against Bangladesh," added the all-rounder.
"We know that as individuals and as a team, I think that's where it is as a team, we've been nowhere near good enough to be able to compete in a World Cup, which has been incredibly disappointing because we know we're so, so much better than what we've shown out here.
"And not having an answer and being able to understand as to why it's gone wrong is very simple. That's the answer. Because if we knew what had gone wrong, we would have been able to fix it. But unfortunately, we don't. It's just been one of those tournaments where, yeah, it's just been a disaster. And there's no point sugarcoating it because it's probably what you're all going to write anyway, and it's true," the left-handed batter added.
Stokes, who has managed just 48 runs in his three games so far, heaped praise on India pacer Mohammed Shami. "I've played a lot of cricket against Shami, he's a fantastic bowler and I think we watched him last night and they brought a stat up in a World Cup that is quite phenomenal actually. He's been obviously the bowler of the World Cup, I think," he said.
"I don't think he's played every game but the way in which he's, in every situation and every game he's come in it's been incredible the amount of wickets he's taken. He's just found a way to be able to get wickets. Obviously that spell against us was one of many he's had this World Cup. Sometimes you just say to the opposition that you're very good and Mohamed Shami's been very good throughout this whole World Cup," Ben Stokes concluded.
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