England captain Ben Stokes provides major update on fitness ahead of Ireland match

England's Test captain Ben Stokes will be leading his team after a long window as the English side locks horns against Ireland in the one-off Test match. England and Ireland will have a four-day contest at Lord's starting from June 1. Notably, Stokes has dropped a major update on his fitness ahead of the English summer and the Ireland Test.

Stokes has said that he has the best opportunity to provide the full role with the ball to England now. Stokes was recently part of the Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2023 but played only 2 games for them. He left the CSK camp after the league stage and bowled only 1 over in his 2 games. “Unless I can't walk, I'll be on the field,” Stokes said ahead of the Test match against Ireland. 

"What I have done is I have got myself in a position where I'm not able to look back and regret or say I've not given myself the best opportunity to play a full role with the ball this summer,” he added. Notably, Stokes was



already in trouble with his knee during the New Zealand tour but eases the worries over his injury. 

“I've worked incredibly hard with the medical team in Chennai, liaising with the ECB guys. I have got myself into a place where I feel like back at 2019, 2020 space in terms of my own body and fitness and everything like that,” the English captain said. He also stated that he is looking to manage his knee. “We know what it is and it's about managing it. It's managing it with the workload,” he added, “and working it with the med team just to get through it,” Stokes added.

England has already announced its squad for the Test match against Ireland. Seamer Josh Tongue will make his debut and fast bowlers James Anderson and Ollie Robinson are rested.

England XI for the Ireland Test: Ben Duckett, Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jonny Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Matthew Potts, Josh Tongue, Jack Leach.