For all the talk of Ashes plans, England settle for a quick fix

Major headache is brewing with lack of an all-rounder to deputise for Stokes

- Malik Ouzia

YOU don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone. But if it then comes back and goes again? Well, really, you’ve probably had fair warning.

That has been England’s lot regarding Ben Stokes the all-round cricketer over the past year and a bit: a long spell when there was little to no bowling as part of the captain’s brief; followed by a tantalising reminder at the start of this summer of the full working thing; to now, and the three-match Test series against Sri Lanka that began in Manchester today, in which the 33-year-old will play no part at all because of a hamstring injury.

England’s struggle to balance their side without Stokes is not confined to that period. It has been an issue throughout a career in which, despite playing 105 Tests, Stokes has also missed plenty, just as it had been for almost any England side not featuring Andrew Flintoff or Ian Botham in the 40-odd years prior. But having accepted there is nothing close to a like-for-like replacement for Stokes around, England, in the short term at least, appear to have stopped looking.