Ben Stokes makes blunt admission over England’s Cricket World Cup campaign and reveals knee surgery

Ben Stokes says England have been ‘crap’ in a ‘disaster’ of a Cricket World Cup campaign, as he reveals that he will undergo knee surgery after the competition.

England have won just one of their six matches in India so far, sitting bottom of the group stage table in a remarkably bad attempt at defending the title they won in 2019.

Three games remain, and the defending champions are not yet officially out of the tournament, but it would take a miracle for England to turn their campaign around.

Asked to identify the problem for the side this year, Stokes said: ‘The problem is we’ve been crap.

‘It’s just been a disaster, there’s no point sugarcoating it.’

England play Australia on Saturday before taking on Netherlands and Pakistan, then Stokes will undergo knee surgery to fix an ongoing injury issue.

A Test series in India begins on 25 January and Stokes hopes to be fit for that run of five-matches, although it will be a tight turnaround, with England’s final game at the World Cup on 11 November.

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