Stokes heartbroken after breaking hand

England’s T20 skipper Stuart Broad has revealed Ben Stokes is ‘heartbroken’ to be missing the format’s World Cup in Bangladesh after an embarrassing incident in the West Indies led to the allrounder sustaining a broken hand.

Stokes suffered the injury after punching a locker immediately after he was dismissed, bowled for a first-ball duck (pictured above), during the third Twenty20 international during England’s World T20 lead-up tour.

“He stood up and apologised to the team and was borderline in tears,” said Broad, from Bangladesh.

“He thinks he not only let himself down but also his team-mates and has and missed the chance to go to a World Cup. At 22 that is a major thing in someone’s career and he has had a fantastic winter up until now, too.

“He was heartbroken and made his feelings very clear to the guys and this will be a learning curve for him. He is a young guy who has a huge amount of natural flair. No-one wants to take that away from him but hopefully he won’t rule himself out of too many World Cups doing stuff like this.”

Stokes' misdemeanour is not the first of his otherwise highly-promising career.

It is just 13 months since he was sent home, along with fellow allrounder Matt Coles, from an England Lions tour of Australia after ECB management lost patience with the pair's persistent late-night drinking.

Shortly before his Test debut in Adelaide last December, Stokes voiced his gratitude to England's then team director Andy Flower for giving him a ‘second chance’ at an international career.

He repaid the faith with his all-round performances, one of the very few bright spots for England as they endured a miserable Ashes campaign.

Joe Root, one of England's most gifted young batsmen, has already been ruled out of the World T20, after breaking a thumb earlier in the tour of the Caribbean.

Ian Bell and Chris Woakes have replaced Stokes and Root in England’s squad.

Meanwhile, Broad is confident the knee injury that forced him to miss two matches in the Caribbean will be fine for England’s World T20 opener against New Zealand on Saturday after forgoing the team’s warm-up match against the West Indies today.