After being ruled out of the fifth Test against India at the Oval last week due to a shoulder injury, England Test captain Ben Stokes will be seen in a new capacity during the ongoing The Hundred 2025 season as he takes over mentorship duties with the Northern Superchargers team.
Stokes, who had ruled himself out of a playing presence in the 100-ball tournament this season as early as January in a commitment to workload management, will reportedly continue his rehabilitation process while overseeing the men’s Superchargers side, coached by former England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff.
“You will see me knocking about the Hundred, not in a playing way, I had to make a decision in January if I would participate in the comp, but that was after my hamstring surgery. I said I’d still like to be a part of it, so I will be milling about. I won’t have a notebook and pen. I said I would come and give my time to the team. I will be cracking on with my rehab,” Stokes was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo earlier this year.
The 34-year-old Durham all-rounder has featured in five matches for the Superchargers between the 2021 and 2024 seasons, aggregating 14 runs and five wickets. The Superchargers men will begin their campaign on Thursday evening as they take on Welsh Fire at Headingley in Leeds.
Stokes was in stellar form with bat and ball in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy as he spearheaded his side to a 2-1 lead, racking up 17 wickets and smashing his first hundred in two years during the drawn Manchester Test. His century and six-wicket blitz at Old Trafford had exacted a massive toll on his body, ruling him out of a thrilling series finale that India clinched by six runs to level the series.
“We took as long as we could to make the decision,” Stokes had said. “I came down [to the Oval] this morning to give myself every chance just to play as a batter – bowling was ruled out as soon as we got the scan results. It’s one of those where weighing up the risk and reward, the risk was way too high. Hearing where it could head to, it wasn’t something that was worth taking a risk on. I wouldn’t expect to put any of my players at risk of an injury like this. So I’ll start rehabbing now and focus on what we’ve got coming up in the winter. Once this series was done I was feet up anyway, so it doesn’t make too much difference.”
