Ben Stokes to miss start of ODI series against Australia with hamstring injury

Stokes will also miss the one-day international against Scotland in Edinburgh next Sunday, with Dawid Malan replacing him in the squad

Ben Stokes suffered the injury while warming up (Getty Images)

England will begin their one-day international series against Australia later this month without Ben Stokes, who has been ruled out of action for at least the next couple of weeks with a hamstring injury. Stokes will also miss the one-day international against Scotland in Edinburgh next Sunday, with Dawid Malan replacing him in the squad. Kent’s Sam Billings, who was already in the squad for the Scotland game, has now been added to the squad for the five-match Australia series, which begins immediately afterwards.

Stokes suffered a tear in his left hamstring while practising at Headingley ahead of this week’s second Test against Pakistan, paving the way for Sam Curran to make his England debut. The England and Wales Cricket Board has not ruled out the possibility of Stokes appearing towards the back end of the Australia series, and the all-rounder will be reassessed next week after returning to Durham to continue his recovery on Monday.

But England have a hectic calendar over the next three months, with the Australia ODI series followed immediately by a one-off Twenty20 game, three T20s and three ODIs against India, then a five-match Test series stretching into mid-September. Stokes is one of just a handful of England players to appear in all three formats, and with director of cricket Andrew Strauss keen to manage the workloads of England’s star players, it is likely the ECB will err on the side of caution in deciding when to bring him back into the side.

It would be a surprise, indeed, if Stokes were to feature at all against Australia. A further complication is the fact that Stokes’s criminal trial for affray, in relation to the incident that occurred outside a Bristol nightclub last September, is scheduled to begin on 6 August, just three days before the start of the second Test against India at Lord’s.