Four operations and pins in his spine: Why England are still picking Olly Stone

When Olly Stone takes the field for England at Lord’s on Thursday it will have been 1,179 days since he last played Test cricket. After years of injury issues, it will be a moment for the fast bowler to savour.

Stone played his first Test back in 2019 at Lord’s when Ireland were the visitors. Two weeks later he was ruled out of that summer’s Ashes series with a back injury.

Two more Tests came after that, firstly against India at Chennai in February 2021 when despite England’s convincing defeat he returned match figures of 4 for 68.

New Zealand were then his next opponents at the start of the following summer at Edgbaston. He took 10 wickets in total across those three Tests at an impressive average of 19.40.

Since, though, his career has stalled, with Stone ruled out of the 2021-22 Ashes series in Australia with a reoccurrence of the back injury he had surgery on later in 2021 at the Wellington Hospital, a stone’s throw away from where he will restart his England career this week at Lord’s in the second Test against Sri Lanka.

That operation was the fourth of his career after surgeries to fix an anterior cruciate ligament, finger and ankle.

Two pins were inserted to the base of Stone’s spine in what was the most serious of his medical procedures.

Despite everything, he has put together a solid run of games for Nottinghamshire this summer, where the number of overs he has bowled – 152.4 – are more significant than the 11 wickets he has taken or his average of 52.63.

Stone states back surgery was a “last resort”, adding: “There’s always an unknown of whether that surgery properly works. It took me a long time, probably a good four or five months, to decide actually whether I was going to go down that route. So, yeah, it wasn’t an easy decision, but the best one I made.”

Hours of rehabilitation in the gym and Pilates have been the key to Stone’s latest injury-free run.

Now he has the confidence to push his body to the limit this week against Sri Lanka after being named in the XI to replace another fast bowler in Mark Wood, who sustained a thigh injury during the opening Test against Sri Lanka at Old Trafford that has ruled him out of the rest of the series.

Despite coming into the team for Wood, Stone is nowhere near as quick as the man whose fastest delivery this summer registered 97.1 miles per hour.

Often thrown in alongside Wood and Jofra Archer as one of the three quicks England would ideally like to unleash against Australia on an Ashes tour, he is a slightly different bowler.

Stone is capable of regularly touching 90mph and the quickest delivery of his professional career was clocked at 93.8mph.

But he is more akin to someone like Gus Atkinson, averaging around 87mph but occasionally being able to produce a delivery above 90mph that can provide a point of difference on flat pitches.

After being given the nod to play this week, he has been told by coach Brendon McCullum his role is “just being aggressive”. Stone is also capable of producing more swing than Wood or Archer, something that could prove crucial to his success this week against Sri Lanka.

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It means he is under no illusions that he is not a like-for-like replacement for Wood.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get to 97mph, that’s a bit freakish isn’t it?” he said.

“There’s no better feeling than trying to bowl fast so I’ll never stop doing that.

“My paces are up there and the gun will tell us. I’ve also tried to up my skill, so it’s not necessarily about running in and being as fast as I can and putting that strain through my body. It’s a mixture of both and hopefully I can show my skills this week.”

Stone’s form this summer did not necessarily merit selection. Indeed, others such as Essex’s Sam Cook, who has 30 Championship wickets at 15.60 might have been more deserving.

But England are zeroing in on bowlers with height and pace as they look to crack the code of consistent excellence on flatter pitches with one eye on that next Ashes tour of Australia in 16 months’ time.

It’s why 20-year-old Josh Hull, a bowler who averages more than 100 with the ball in first-class cricket this summer, came into the squad this week following Wood’s injury.

Given Stone took one for 109 in his most recent County Championship match for Nottinghamshire at Durham last week, it is a huge leap of faith to pitch him in at Lord’s.

Yet the affable fast bowler from Norfolk is talking a good game. It would be to everybody’s benefit if he can back up those words with wickets against Sri Lanka.