Stokes shoulder injury puts England on edge

England's Champions Trophy plans have suffered a set-back with star allrounder Ben Stokes injured in the Indian Premier League.

Stokes this week injured his shoulder bowling during the Rising Pune Supergiant's three-run win against the Mumbai Indians.

It was later revealed the England allrounder had suffered a grade-one muscle tear in his right shoulder bowling his opening over.

He completed his four overs in the match, returning 2-21 and turning the match Pune's way, delivering a wicket-maiden early, and conceding just seven bowling the penultimate over.

He missed Wednesday's match as Pune were defeated by the Kolkata Knight Riders, and is also set to sit out of tomorrow's showdown with Virat Kohli and the Royal Challengers Bangalore.

His participation in Pune's clash with the Gujarat Lions next Monday is also in doubt and England's medical support staff will be anxiously monitoring his progress with the Indian club.

England host the eight-team Champions Trophy one-day tournament, starting June 1. They also have bilateral ODI series against Ireland and South Africa before the tournament.

Stokes was bought by Pune for a staggering AUD$2.8m (GBP1.7m) this season and there remains the possibility he will play the remainder of the tournament as a batsman only to avoid further aggravating the shoulder injury.

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His superb 19th over in the victory against Mumbai eased fears about his ability to handle pressure at the death.

He famously was smashed for four successive sixes in the final over of the World T20 final a year ago as Carlos Brathwaite and the West Indies stole the title.

And earlier in this IPL campaign he was again on the receiving end at the death as South African Chris Morris hammered Stokes for 23 and recorded figures of 0-41 against the Delhi Daredevils.

Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting had warned that targeting Stokes with the ball could be the secret to limiting his devastating all-round impact.

"The first thing I'd do (as an opposition coach) is try and get on top of him with the ball," Ponting told cricket.com.au.

"When he's bowling, I'd have batters make sure they're ultra-aggressive against him early on. Because if there are any of those doubts and those thoughts in the back of his mind about maybe not being able to execute under pressure, then you need to be able to get on top of that really early.

"To me he looks like the sort of player that if he gets off to a good start then he'll probably have a really good game.

"But if he gets attacked early on or under pressure early on, that's when the game becomes really difficult.

"But his ball striking is outstanding ... I wouldn't be too worried about him as far as his batting goes, but I'd certainly try and get on top of his bowling."

While the allrounder's overall record in T20 cricket undersells his undoubted talent, Ponting believes that stems from juggling the difficult tasks of batting and bowling late in the innings, like he has in the tournament so far.

"I'm sure (Pune) weren't looking too much at his record because it is quite a tough game when you're batting down the order and he's probably bowling all the difficult overs as well," Ponting said.

"He's bowling the overs at the end like we saw in that World Cup final. So your actual numbers don't look that good, but if that's what your team needs to have someone like that to fit in, that's what you do."

And Ponting, who coached the Mumbai Indians to the IPL title in 2015, said what he is being paid this season shouldn't put any added pressure on Stokes.

"I'm not sure if the price tag puts any more pressure on him," he added. "There's pressure on every IPL player.

"I'm sure he's thinking about the money because he's got a lot more than anyone else has in an IPL auction, but it'll be about how he handles the pressure of the tournament.

"And we've seen at different times he probably hasn't handled the pressure that well.

"He's an exceptionally talented allrounder and RPS will be expecting a lot of him, no doubt."

Champions Trophy 2017 Guide

Squads: Every Champions Trophy squad named so far

Group A: Australia, New Zealand, England, Bangladesh.

Group B: India, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Pakistan.

Schedule

Warm-up matches

26 May – Australia v Sri Lanka, The Oval

27 May – Bangladesh v Pakistan, Edgbaston

28 May – India v New Zealand, The Oval

29 May – Australia v Pakistan, Edgbaston

30 May – New Zealand v Sri Lanka, Edgbaston

30 May – Bangladesh vs India, The Oval

Tournament

1 June – England v Bangladesh, The Oval (Day)

2 June – Australia v New Zealand, Edgbaston (D)

3 June – Sri Lanka v South Africa, The Oval (D)

4 June – India v Pakistan, Edgbaston (D)

5 June – Australia v Bangladesh, The Oval (D/N)

6 June – England v New Zealand, Cardiff (D)

7 June – Pakistan v South Africa, Edgbaston (D/N)

8 June – India v Sri Lanka, The Oval (D)

9 June – New Zealand v Bangladesh, Cardiff (D)

10 June – England v Australia, Edgbaston (D)

11 June – India v South Africa, The Oval (D)

12 June – Sri Lanka v Pakistan, Cardiff (D)

14 June – First semi-final (A1 v B2), Cardiff (D)

15 June – Second semi-final (A2 v B1), Edgbaston (D)

18 June – Final, The Oval (D)

19 June – Reserve day (D)