{"id":728011,"date":"2026-06-10T19:14:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T19:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/728011\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T19:14:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T19:14:13","slug":"stokes-out-of-second-test-with-new-zealand-over-nightclub-incident-as-root-made-captain-england-cricket-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/728011\/","title":{"rendered":"Stokes out of second Test with New Zealand over nightclub incident as Root made captain | England cricket team"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joe Root will captain England in next week\u2019s second Test against New Zealand after Ben Stokes and Gus Atkinson were left out of the squad for breaking the team curfew<\/a> as they celebrated victory in the first game of the series on Sunday night.<\/p>\n

While the England & Wales Cricket<\/a> Board continues its investigation into that incident Stokes, the team\u2019s full-time captain, is being given some time to consider his future. He is reported to have spent Wednesday in meetings with his agent and advisers debating whether to stand down as captain permanently, or to end his international career completely. He may still choose to do neither, with the former England captain Michael Vaughan having joined those backing him to stay. \u201cYes, he broke a curfew,\u201d Vaughan said. \u201cIs that a sacking offence as England\u2019s Test captain? I don\u2019t think so. A short suspension would be fine, but this is not a big enough incident over which to lose the captaincy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Atkinson will also miss the Oval game, with the ECB indicating it will not consider either player until it has concluded its investigation. The final match in the series starts at Trent Bridge on 25 June, and with the ECB having warned that its inquiry may take some weeks both players\u2019 participation in that game is also in doubt.<\/p>\n

Rob Key, the organisation\u2019s managing director of men\u2019s cricket, will speak to the media on Thursday to provide some clarity over its position after it released a short statement on Wednesday confirming that \u201cgiven the ongoing investigation, Stokes and Atkinson have not been made available for selection\u201d.<\/p>\n

Root has been appointed interim captain, having previously led England in 64 Tests between 2017 and 2022 before stepping down with the side on a run of just one win in 17 games. He later said the experience \u201ctook the life of me\u201d and left him \u201ca shadow of the person that I want to be\u201d, and in 84 innings since giving up the responsibility his batting average, which was 46.44 while he led the side<\/a>, has leapt to 54.90<\/a>. But in the absence of Stokes the 35-year-old is England\u2019s most senior player by a distance: beyond him only the 32-year-old Ollie Robinson and the 31-year-olds Archer and Ben Duckett are older than 28.<\/p>\n

Joe Root shakes hands with Kraigg Brathwaite after West Indies\u2019 captain led his side to a 10-wicket win in his opposite number\u2019s last game as England skipper, in March 2022. Photograph: Ricardo Mazal\u00e1n\/AP<\/p>\n

Given the reignited debate over the England squad\u2019s drinking culture Root is also, importantly, unsullied by alcohol-related scandal \u2013 at least in the 13 years since he was punched by Australia\u2019s David Warner in a Birmingham bar in 2013, apparently for inappropriately wearing a green-and-gold Australia wig<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While he was at the White Horse pub in Parsons Green, where a group of England\u2019s cricketers moved on Sunday evening to continue the victory celebrations that started at Lord\u2019s following the win over New Zealand, he returned to the team hotel in time to meet their midnight curfew rather than continue with Stokes and Atkinson to Chelsea\u2019s Rex Rooms nightclub. It was there, at around 1am, that a fight broke out in which it is believed the 6ft 5in, 21-year-old Saracens academy rugby player Totoa Auvaa aim a punch at Atkinson that connected instead with a security guard hired by the ECB, leaving him requiring stitches.<\/p>\n

While Harry Brook replaced Ollie Pope as the Test team\u2019s vice-captain last September, in the circumstances responding to Stokes\u2019s predicament by promoting the 27-year-old would have invited further criticism, given he recently came close to being stripped of his captaincy of England\u2019s white-ball teams as a result of his own nightclub altercation \u2013 in his case in Wellington on the eve of a one-day international last November. But with the interim captaincy likely to last until the end of the series, it may also have been considered sensible to spare him the added responsibility, with a T20 series against India starting at Chester-le-Street potentially less than 48 hours after the final game against New Zealand concludes in Nottingham.<\/p>\n

Quick GuideEngland second Test squadShow<\/p>\n

Joe Root (Yorkshire) – Captain;\u00a0Rehan Ahmed (Leicestershire); Jofra Archer (Sussex); Sonny Baker (Hampshire); Shoaib Bashir (Derbyshire); Jacob Bethell (Warwickshire); Harry Brook (Yorkshire); Jordan Cox (Essex); Ben Duckett (Nottinghamshire); Matthew Fisher (Surrey); Emilio Gay (Durham);<\/p>\n

James Rew (Somerset); Ollie Robinson (Sussex); Jamie Smith (Surrey); Josh Tongue (Nottinghamshire)<\/p>\n

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The absence of Stokes and Atkinson, combined with the hand injury sustained by Brydon Carse during a training session in April, means England will be without three of their four leading wicket-takers over the last two years<\/a>. As a result they are very likely to bring two seamers into their team next week, and they are expected to be Sonny Baker \u2013 who was close to being given a Test debut in the opening game at Lord\u2019s \u2013 and Jofra Archer, who returns to the country on Thursday after following his efforts for Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League with a short break in Barbados. Surrey\u2019s Matthew Fisher has kept his place in the squad.<\/p>\n

The dilemma facing Brendon McCullum, the England coach, will be whether to also bolster the batting, which would mean leaving out Shoaib Bashir \u2013 the fourth of those leading wicket-takers.<\/p>\n

Bashir played at Lord\u2019s but did not bowl a ball, and in his only previous Test outing at the Oval, against Sri Lanka in 2024, took one wicket for 65. That could mean a return for Leicestershire\u2019s leg-spinning all-rounder Rehan Ahmed, the 21-year-old boasting a first-class batting average that at 32.69 is nearly four times Bashir\u2019s 8.70.<\/p>\n

Alternatively they could go without a frontline spinner, in the knowledge that Root and Jacob Bethell could contribute if required. That would likely allow Somerset\u2019s James Rew to come into the team to make his debut, having been the spare batter in the squad for the opening game, while Jordan Cox of Essex has been added to the group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joe Root will captain England in next week\u2019s second Test against New Zealand after Ben Stokes and Gus…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":728012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-728011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=728011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/728012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}