England’s national cricket team was completely outplayed by New Zealand in the opening clash of ODI WC 2023. The side badly missed the services of Ben Stokes who was injured and had a niggle. Ben Stokes‘ absence hurt the team a lot as he is a complete cricketer and can contribute in all the 3 facets of the game.
Ben Stokes, who had retired from the one-day format after the victory of the 2019 World Cup, surprised everyone by returning to ODI cricket before the 2023 World Cup. Along with this, his return to the England ODI team has given a lot of strength to England in this World Cup.
In the first match of this World Cup, England had to face a crushing defeat at the hands of New Zealand by 9 wickets. England was playing this match in the absence of Ben Stokes, after which questions were being raised on the England team whether England looks weak without Ben Stokes.
“We want to keep ODI WC trophy, to prove people wrong” – Mark Wood
England’s fast bowler Mark Wood said, Ben Stokes is not a Superman who will come every time to rescue the team from trouble, we need to play unitedly as a team. Mark Wood praised his team and said that he has full confidence in all his team members and we will learn from this defeat and move forward and prove everyone wrong. This is another opportunity for each of us to prove ourselves better and show the world how much we deserve this trophy.
“I don’t want to put too much pressure on him. He’s not Superman. It’s not all just about the messiah Stokesy coming back and him doing everything. He’s obviously one of our best players, if not our best player, but all the lads have to stand up as well,” said Mark Wood.
“Ben Stokes has got strapping round his leg, which is helping. He’ll have to get in the nets and see if the strapping does its job and allows him to move how he wants,” he stated.
“A great trait of the group is resilience and bouncing back, and calmness within the group. I trust every member in there: they’ve been through bad times and good times. [We’ll use it] to prove that we want to keep this trophy, to prove people wrong and there’ll be question marks now. But as a group, we believe in each other and it’s another chance for us to show how good a side we are,” he added.