The international summer was moving along beautifully. England had just taken New Zealand apart at Lord's with their usual breathless style of cricket, and the mood was triumphant. Then came June 8. A late-night venue in London, a broken midnight team curfew, and a sudden, chaotic scuffle involving a rugby player from the Saracens. Security staff took a blow, the selectors lost their patience, and both Ben Stokes and Gus Atkinson found themselves dropped for the second Test at the Kia Oval.
Predictably, New Zealand made the most of the chaos. They won the second match, levelled the three-game series at 1-1, and left England looking incredibly messy.
Clearing the air before Trent Bridge
The independent Cricket Regulator officially ended its investigation last night. They looked at everything, tracked the evidence, and decided that neither player broke any official ECB code of conduct. The cloud has lifted. Stokes was not even there when the physical fighting happened. Atkinson, meanwhile, was actually the victim of an unprovoked attack and did not hit back.
They will get a written warning about missing curfew, but that is it. No sporting bans. No extra punishments.
"The Cricket Regulator's role is to determine whether any participant or player has breached any applicable ECB Cricket Regulations. The investigation followed multiple lines of enquiry to gather and assess evidence in relation to the events in question. Having carefully reviewed all currently available information, the Cricket Regulator has determined that there is insufficient evidence to establish that any regulatory breach occurred. Accordingly, no further action will be taken against either player. The Cricket Regulator would like to thank all those involved for their cooperation throughout the investigation," the official statement read, via Sky Sport.
Stokes takes the captaincy right back from Joe Root, who did his best as a stand-in leader during that frustrating defeat at the Oval. Getting Atkinson back is just as massive for the bowling attack. He has genuine, raw pace. The kind of high pace that can actually make things happen on a flat Trent Bridge pitch.
England squad for third Test: Ben Stokes (c), Gus Atkinson, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith, Chris Woakes, Matthew Potts, Olly Stone, Shoaib Bashir.
