{"id":751761,"date":"2026-06-21T23:48:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T23:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/751761\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T23:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T23:48:10","slug":"ben-stokes-returns-to-england-captaincy-for-third-test-against-new-zealand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/751761\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Stokes returns to England captaincy for third Test against New Zealand"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Captain Ben Stokes and Gus Atkinson have returned to England&#8217;s squad for the third Test against New Zealand at Trent Bridge following the conclusion of a disciplinary hearing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\"><a class=\"Link_link__kR0xA Link_link__5eL5m ScreenReaderOnly_srLinkHint__OysWz Link_showVisited__C1Fea Link_showFocus__ALyv2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2026-06-11\/stokes-out-from-nz-second-test-ecb\/106783768\" data-component=\"Link\" data-uri=\"coremedia:\/\/article\/106783768\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Stokes and Atkinson were suspended from the second Test<\/a> after a curfew breach at a London nightclub.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">They were reportedly present when a member of England&#8217;s security staff was involved \u200cin an incident following England&#8217;s first-Test win.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Stokes missed the second Test, which New Zealand won by 253 runs at The Oval to level the series 1-1.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2026-06-21\/england-new-zealand-cricket-test-the-oval-ben-stokes\/106824288\" data-component=\"FullBleedLink\" class=\"RelatedCard_link__rsgR9 FullBleedLink_root__lTw_U interactive_focusContext__yRhc_ interactive_defaults__AKxUU FullBleedLink_showVisited__g3Xvz\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Stokes shines in county cricket<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP RelatedCard_synopsis__cFwMW Typography_sizeMobile14__u7TGe Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">England&#8217;s slide towards likely defeat to New Zealand in the second Test takes place on the same day absent captain Ben Stokes scores 95 for his county side Durham.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;Ben Stokes and Gus Atkinson have been included in the England \u200cmen&#8217;s squad for the third Test against New Zealand following the conclusion of an ECB disciplinary hearing in relation to their conduct in the early hours of Monday 8 June,&#8221; the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;Stokes and Atkinson were found to have breached specific contractual \u200cobligations that require England players to at all times maintain the highest standards of conduct and act in the best interests of England cricket.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The ECB said both players had \u2060received written warnings but were not blamed for \u200cthe violence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">It was noted Stokes \u200cwas not present during the violent conduct and Atkinson was subjected to unprovoked attacks but did \u200cnot retaliate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Joe Root deputised as captain in Stokes&#8217;s absence and reached the milestone of 14,000 Test runs, becoming only the second player to do so \u200cafter India great Sachin Tendulkar.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Stokes impressed \u2060for Durham in a county match over the weekend, <a class=\"Link_link__kR0xA Link_link__5eL5m ScreenReaderOnly_srLinkHint__OysWz Link_showVisited__C1Fea Link_showFocus__ALyv2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2026-06-21\/england-new-zealand-cricket-test-the-oval-ben-stokes\/106824288\" data-component=\"Link\" data-uri=\"coremedia:\/\/article\/106824288\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">scoring 95 off 118 balls against Northamptonshire<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The third Test begins on June 25 in Nottingham.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Captain Ben Stokes and Gus Atkinson have returned to England&#8217;s squad for the third Test against New Zealand&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":728437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,2129,740,1208,360758,4895,1736,360759,85,26605],"class_list":["post-751761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-ben-stokes","tag-cricket","tag-england","tag-gust-atkinson","tag-incident","tag-new-zealand","tag-night-club","tag-sports","tag-suspension"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751761","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=751761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/728437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=751761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=751761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=751761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}