STOKES’ CHAMPS RETURN
By Matt Thacker

Ben Stokes is playing his first Championship game for almost exactly two years, for Durham against Lancashire at Blackpool, in a bid to prove his fitness – to himself as much as anyone else – as a Test match bowler.
As England look towards a summer’s programme against West Indies and Sri Lanka without the services of the retiring Jimmy Anderson after the first Test, Stokes and the England management are keen that he can play a full part in a revamped bowling attack.
When Lancashire batted, Stokes took two wickets and showed encouraging and impressive ...