Ben Stokes could make England return in first ODI against New Zealand

After a five-month absence Ben Stokes could make his England comeback in the first one-day international against New Zealand on Sunday. England head coach Trevor Bayliss said last week it was “unlikely” Stokes would play the first one-dayer but after the allrounder had enjoyed his first practice session with England this winter, captain Eoin Morgan said: “Yes, there’s a good chance he'll be fit for the first ODI.”

According to Morgan, Stokes’s return to the England side will depend on “how his body reacts. He’s obviously been bowling indoors and it’s not the same as bowling outdoors. The impact on his body, we just don’t know. If he picks up a niggle or he’s overly stiff we’re not going to risk him just for the sake of him playing because he’s back. He’s got a long year ahead of him - IPL, a full summer, and the winter is Sri Lanka before Christmas, so he probably won’t have time off till December which is a long time.”

Morgan also backed Adil Rashid’s decision to give up Test and championship cricket this summer and concentrate on white-ball formats, as revealed last week by the Telegraph.

“I think it’s a decision that we’ll probably see happen a lot more in the near future as opposed to the distant. Cricket is changing a lot and I think Adil’s very brave to say he’s going to put red-ball cricket on the back burner and focus on white-ball cricket,” Morgan said.

“When Adil came and told me, he said it sits really well with him and it’s a bit of an encouraging sign for me when somebody wants to focus that much on white-ball cricket because you never know down the line how significant red-ball cricket is going to be.”

Morgan however, always his own man, wants to play more championship cricket this summer because “my technique isn’t very good and I always struggle my first 20 balls and I’m a slow starter, (so) striving to play red-ball cricket always made me work on my technique a little bit more. My technique’s normally ok (when I play red-ball) and I tend to hit the ball further and play it later. It’s not been the aspiration to play Test cricket - I don’t.”