England head coach Brendon McCullum said captain Ben Stokes will be “hurting” after the 2-1 Test series defeat against Pakistan. Despite winning the opening match of the series, England failed to make big inroads in the last two games and faltered against the spin duo of Sajid Khan and Noman Ali in Multan and Rawalpindi to lose their second series under Stokes’ leadership. The all-rounder missed the first Test owing to a hamstring injury and only scored 53 runs in four innings and went wicketless in the 10 overs he bowled.

“He’s disappointed but he’s our skipper and we know he’s tough. He’ll make sure he’ll come back. It’s our job to make sure we wrap our arms around him and help him along the way,” McCullum said.

“He is disappointed, naturally. We all know how competitive and driven the skipper is. He’ll be hurting right now with how the series has unfolded.

“That injury was quite significant. He had to put in a lot of graft and subconsciously maybe you’re not quite as screwed down as you can be in terms of decision-making. That’s natural,” he added.

Stokes has faced an inconsistent couple of years with his fitness. Throughout much of 2023, his bowling was limited by a persistent left knee issue. He underwent surgery in November of that year and returned as a full all-rounder during the summer home series. However, he then injured his hamstring while playing in The Hundred in August.

The 33-year-old missed four Tests, including the series opener in Pakistan, which England won. He returned for the second match – a loss on a reused pitch in Multan – and particularly struggled in the final Test in Rawalpindi.

Stokes managed just 15 runs across two innings and didn’t bowl. On the second afternoon, his typically proactive captaincy seemed unusually passive as Saud Shakeel scored a century, putting Pakistan in control.

In England’s second innings, Stokes was strangely dismissed lbw to a delivery from spinner Noman Ali after not offering a shot. England were ultimately bowled out for 112, their lowest total in Pakistan, setting up a nine-wicket victory for the hosts.

England face a quick turnaround to their next tour: a three-Test series in New Zealand starting at the end of November. The squad is expected to be announced soon, with few changes anticipated. Leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed may be replaced, possibly by an additional batter or wicketkeeper, to cover Jamie Smith, who could miss part or all of the tour due to the birth of his first child.

The first Test will be held in Christchurch, where Stokes was born before moving to the UK at age 12.

“He’ll be better for the run, no doubt. It will be a couple of weeks off, freshen up and back to conditions which are a bit more similar to England. It’s another opportunity for us,” said McCullum.

Sanath Jayasuriya, the interim Sri Lanka men’s head coach, believes the Test team set to play three games against England in the latter half of the summer is a great opportunity, citing the conditions will suit the visitors. Sri Lanka starts their Test series against England on August 21 at Old Trafford in Manchester. “The fact that we have got a late-summer tour is great, because the wickets have been used a lot, and there’s more sunshine at this time of year. It’s more similar to our conditions than the early summer tours. I have made sure the players know it’s a great opportunity,” Jayasuriya told ESPNCricinfo.

With many players touring England for the first time for the longer format, Jayasuriya stated about ensuring the Sri Lankan players are in the right mindset before the series begins. “I want to make sure there is that hunger. Playing three Tests like this is not an opportunity you will get easily again.”

“So we have to take it while we can. Scoring runs here is challenging, because even if the pitches are flat, the ball can still start swinging, or seaming. We have to know how to adjust to that.”

In his six Tests in England, Jayasuriya scored 421 runs at an average of 42.1, with his best knock being 213 coming at the Oval in 1998. With Sri Lanka having the services of Dinesh Chandimal, Dimuth Karunaratne and Angelo Mathews, who were members of the Test series-winning team in England in 2014, Jayasuriya wants other batters to be flexible in their batting approach.

“We have the personnel there, but we need to fight hard. If you play six or seven batters, only two or three will perform for sure. If they get a start they need to play big innings. They know they have that responsibility on challenging wickets.”

“Everyone should play their natural game, but once you get that start, there are places where you need to break things down a little, and either bat quickly, or slow down for a bit. When the ball gets older, it can still seam here, which is the uniqueness of the Duke ball.”

Sri Lanka are placed in fourth position on the World Test Championships standings, with a point percentage of 50% while England are in seventh place with 36.54%. Jayasuriya signed off by saying Sri Lanka have bowling plans to counter England’s aggressive style of batting.

“It’s in the first ten overs that there will be the most pressure I think. If you look historically, they have been attacking in the first ten overs and getting runs on the board quickly. We have got some plans to counter that. And we know this is how they will play.”

“We have to bowl in the right places, and if they hit the good balls, that’s okay. We need to identify the right lengths given the conditions. There will be times when we need to cover the areas of the field where they are attacking, to cut down the boundaries.”

Bowling full tilt at nets raised hopes of Ben Stokes rolling his arms over in the fourth Test against India but the England captain on Thursday preferred to keep the suspense over his availability as a bowler in Ranchi. Due to issues with his knee, Stokes has been playing only as a batter since the second Ashes Test last June. However, he was seen bowling extensively at the nets on the eve of the fourth Test. Asked about the possibility of him bowling in the match, Stokes said, “Nah, I think it’s maybe, maybe not.” Stokes said going in with two pacers is the best option for England, forcing them to include the tall Ollie Robinson in the playing XI, even though the Ranchi track is likely to assist the spinners.

“Bringing Robbo (Robinson) in gives us good options, especially looking at this wicket,” Stokes said at the pre-match media interaction.

“I feel like the spin will be assisted, but I also feel having two seamers gives us a good chance purely because of Ollie Robinson’s release height and his relentlessness with his areas.”

The 30-year-old Robinson, who last played in the Ashes, has come at the expense of Mark Wood, while Shoaib Bashir replaced leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed.

“You look at the player Mark is, especially with the ball, you want someone like that operating at 100 per cent.

“His number one skill is how fast he bowls and the effort he put in last week was monumental. You want to be able to keep players like that on the field operating at that level.

“We do like to look at the pitch two days out and one day out, because that’s how we like to pick our XIs. You want to give yourself some idea or some indication about what XI you think is going to give you the best chance.

“Looking at that, I think there is going to be assistance for spin, but I think also it looks like someone like Bash (Bashir), who releases the ball from such a high release point, the extra bounce that he gets, we feel, is going to bring us more into the game.”

‘Don’t prejudge the pitch too much’

Stokes added spice to the talks on Ranchi pitch, saying he has not seen anything remotely like the 22-yard strip here in the past. But he also stated that it’s not fair to have “preconceived ideas” about the pitch.

“We get asked about the pitch and we give our opinion, but that doesn’t mean we are going in with too many preconceived ideas. The pitch could be as flat as a pancake, who knows.

“If it is, we will adapt to that. If it does more than we think it will, we will adapt to that as well. We won’t let those conversations seep into what we do.” England have retained old warhorse James Anderson who is seven shy of reaching the landmark 700 wickets and become the first pacer to achieve the feat.

The 41-year-old has bowled 73 overs in two matches in the series and taken six wickets.

“If you’re a young fast bowler, Jimmy Anderson is the one person who you want as your role model. Not only the amount of wickets he’s got but the fact that he can keep going at his age.

“Especially over the last two years, he’s also introduced new ways of operating. We’ve seen him commit to bowling bouncers, we’ve seen him bowl around the wickets to right handers, use the skills when the conditions need that.

“Even saying approaching 700 wickets as a fast bowler is incredible but I don’t think that’ll be at the top of his mind this week just because of where we are in the series,” he concluded.