England captain Ben Stokes said Saturday he will miss the first Test against Pakistan starting next week, after failing to recover from a hamstring injury.

Stokes was sidelined for England's recent Test series against Sri Lanka due to the hamstring tear he suffered playing for Northern Superchargers in The Hundred on August 11.

Test captain Ben Stokes indicated Tuesday he would be ready to make an England limited-overs comeback.

Stokes will skipper the side after missing the 2-1 home series win against Sri Lanka with a hamstring injury. Opener Zak Crawley is also in the squad announced on Tuesday after missing the same series with a broken finger.

England captain Ben Stokes has been ruled out for the rest of the season with a torn hamstring and will miss the Test series against Sri Lanka, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) announced Tuesday.

England Test captain Ben Stokes was helped off the field after suffering an injury while playing for the Northern Superchargers in The Hundred on Sunday.

Australia's Mitchell Starc holds the current record for the fastest recorded delivery in a Test, at 99.6mph against New Zealand in 2015.

England have named an unchanged side for the third Test at Edgbaston as they target a series clean sweep of the West Indies.

England will have Gus Atkinson and Mark Wood, both bowlers who can bowl 90mph, in their starting XI at Trent Bridge as England prepare for the post-James Anderson era.

England captain Ben Stokes is adamant his long-term goal of regaining the Ashes in Australia will have no ill-effects as he leads his side into a home Test series against the West Indies starting Wednesday.

The 32-year-old said he was skipping the tournament in the United States and the West Indies to make sure he could be a fully-fledged all-rounder in Test cricket.

"I'm working hard and focusing on building my bowling fitness back up to fulfil a full role as an all-rounder in all formats of cricket," Stokes, England's Test captain, said in a statement.

"I don't give too much away as the series is going on but I'm always man enough to say we got beaten by the better team," Stokes told reporters.

India's five-wicket victory on a spiteful track in Ranchi was not really a cakewalk, thanks to England's never-say-die spin attack.

"On this occasion, their skill was better than ours," Stokes told reporters.

“I’ve never seen something like that before. I don’t know what could happen,” England captain Ben Stokes told the British media after seeing the pitch for their fourth Test against India at the JSCA International Stadium Complex in Ranchi, which begins today. 

There is "definitely a chance" that England captain Ben Stokes will bowl in the fourth Test against India, his deputy Ollie Pope said Wednesday, in a badly needed boost for the tourists.

"I managed to bowl at 100 percent on one of the warm-up days here which made me feel pretty good. I felt like I could have bowled in the game but that would have been stupid."

"This England team are hell bent on doing things their way, and 'saving test cricket'. They are giving test cricket a shot in the arm because they are so exciting," Michael Vaughan wrote in Britain's Daily Telegraph.

England's bold tactics under Stokes and coach Brendon 'Baz' McCullum have revitalised Test cricket and India, who have not lost a Test series on home soil since 2012, were always going to be a litmus test of that philosophy.