IPL 218 | Ben Stokes frustrated with back injury problems

Ben Stokes has been a talking point in world cricket right from the time he was involved in a brawl in Bristol. He had to miss the Ashes and the subsequent ODI and T20I series as well. Without their premier all-rounder, England lost the Ashes 4-0 and it was clearly evident how important Stokes was to that line-up. However, Stokes returned to the national side in the ODI series against New Zealand and scored 141 runs at an average of 47.00 while picking up 5 wickets in 5 games. 

But the Durham all-rounder picked up an injury in that ODI series. Hence, he could not bowl in the first Test and bowled only 6 overs in the first innings of the second Test. Those 6 overs were also bowled with a shortened run-up. He termed the experience of playing with a back injury as ‘frustrating’ but he is hopeful that he will fully recover in a week or two. 

“It's been frustrating. I had a few injections into an injury I had when I was a kid. At the same time, it's getting slowly better. It's a patience game, a day-to-day thing. Hopefully, in a week or two time, it will be good to go,” Stokes was quoted saying by Cricbuzz.

Stokes, who falls back a bit on his delivery stride, revealed that he is looking to align his back so that the stress is reduced. He is working closely with England’s bowling coach Chris Silverwood on various ways to reduce his back stress. 

“I'm on working alignment, it's more a long-term plan. I think if I can cancel out my dip-in, which obviously loads my lower back where I've had the pain recently, that will do me good in the future,” Stokes said. 

“When I was looking at my paces off that [short run-up] I was bowling as fast as I normally do. I don't think I'll resort to that short of a run-up but it proves to me that I don't need to over-try. Sometimes I've been guilty of that.” 

After the end of this New Zealand tour, Stokes will be playing for Rajasthan Royals in this year’s IPL. He was the costliest player in the auctions for the second successive year.