Huge blow to Ben Stokes' England ahead of Test series against India, star player doubtful for series opener

Huge blow to Ben Stokes' England ahead of Test series against India, star player doubtful for series opener
The England team including Ben Stokes, Sam Cook, Gus Atkinson and Shoaib Bashir look at the screen during day 2 of the Test against Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge on May 23, 2025 in Nottingham, England.

Story Highlights:

Gus Atkinson sustained a hamstring injury during one-off Test against Zimbabwe.

Atkinson is not expected to regain fitness ahead of Test series opener.

Atkinson adds to the list of injured England pacers.

England's prominent fast bowler Gus Atkinson is doubtful for the first Test of the five-Test series against India starting June 20 at Edgbaston, Birmingham. Atkinson sustained a hamstring injury in the one-off four-day Test against Zimbabwe. Then, he was ruled out of the ongoing ODI series against West Indies. 

Earlier, Atkinson was expected to recover from hamstring injury ahead of the opening match of five-Test series but he is far away from it, as per a report by BBC. 

Injury list for England 

Atkinson adds to the list of injured England pacers. Mark Wood, Olly Stone and already ruled out of the series. Recently, Jofra Archer suffered a thumb injury while playing for Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. He is unlikely to return to the red-ball squad as well. 

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How other pacers have fared of late

In the one-off Test against Zimbabwe, the other pacers in the lineup were Samuel James Cook and Josh Tongue. Atkinson struck thrice, Tongue had two scalps whereas Cook claimed just one wicket. Skippper Stokes got three wickets as well. The only other pacer in the squad was Matthew Potts. In the third ODI against West Indies, Potts replaced an injured Jamie Overton and took two wickets. 

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Pacers who can feature in Test series 

Meanwhile, veteran pacer Chris Woakes is expected to return to action for England Lions against India A in the second unofficial Test starting June 6. Woakes is coming back from an ankle injury. The other pacer is Brydon Carse who claimed four wickets in the ODI series against West Indies. Both Woakes and Carse are capable of contributing with the bat as well. 

England Test squad announcement 

England Cricket Board (ECB) is expected to announce the Test squad for India series next week. Jacob Bethell is set to return after missing the Zimbabwe Test. 

India Test squad for England series

Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (vc & wk), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav