Ben Stokes hits back with annoyance over accusation of picking The Hundred over County matches

Ben Stokes. (Photo Source: Getty Images)

Star English all-rounder and red-ball skipper, Ben Stokes, was markedly triggered by a recent tweet which was put out by eminent cricket journalist, Scott Wilson, who alleged Stokes gives higher weightage to the 20-ball franchise competition, The Hundred, rather than the multi-day premier domestic tournament, the County Championship.

This came after Wilson made a crass remark on Stokes being allowed to “mess about in the circus” (referring to The Hundred 2024) and given the special leeway to not play county cricket ahead of England’s red-ball calendar. To this, Stokes responded to the tweet, the following day (August 14 – three days post sustaining the injury), calling Wilson out for his lack of fact-checking and research, while also mentioning that he had featured in three Championship games for Durham this year.

Chief Sports Writer???
I played 3 Championship games for Durham this year

🏏 So Ben Stokes isn’t allowed to play any county cricket for #Durham during the summer, but he’s fine to mess about in the circus that is the Hundred, rupturing his hamstring and ruling him out for the rest of the summer. Utterly farcical….

— Scott Wilson (@Scottwilsonecho) August 13, 2024

Also Read: Important for Ollie Pope to see what a team looks like without Ben Stokes: Stuart Broad

Notably, the three games Stokes was referring to in his tweet were the ones against Lancashire, Somerset, and Worcestershire in May and June. He managed to get his bowling mojo back during the three-game run, scalping 18 wickets, comprising a five-wicket haul and a couple of four-fers. With the bat, Stokes scored 2, 18, 0, 56, and 26, respectively.

After an exemplary two-match series against the West Indies where he was a force to reckon with due to his all-round skills coming in clutch, Stokes had arranged for himself to feature for the Superchargers for four games in The Hundred, before shifting his focus to the impending three-match Test series against Sri Lanka.

Also Read: ECB pulls Chris Woakes out of The Hundred following Ben Stokes’ hamstring injury

However, his hopes of participating in the series came crashing down after he was ruled out of the entire series due to the magnitude of his injury. It is reported that the England Cricket Board is trying its level best to get Stokes up to prime fitness for the Pakistan tour scheduled for October.