England captain Ben Stokes is out of the upcoming Test series against Sri Lanka after injuring his hamstring playing for Northern Superchargers in the Hundred.

Stokes had to be carried off the pitch by team physio James Pipe and strength and conditioning coach Harry Booker, 10 days before England’s first Test begins at Old Trafford.

Having already lost Zak Crawley due to a broken finger, England have lost two of the three players to have played in every Test under Brendon McCullum’s coaching tenure with only Joe Root remaining.

Dan Lawrence has been drafted in as a makeshift opener in Crawley’s absence, but how Stokes will be replaced is less clear.

While Ollie Pope will in as captain, here are the three ways to replace Stokes’ all-round capabilities.

Push Chris Woakes up the order

Pushing Chris Woakes up to No 7 is the continuity option and the one that likely best aligns with the much-vaunted plan to blood in new fast bowlers after James Anderson’s enforced retirement.

Woakes is certainly not a like-for-like swap for England’s captain – his Test batting average in England is 33.28, compared to Stokes’ 40.36 – but he is more than capable of filling the role against Sri Lanka.  

This would have provided the ideal opportunity to trial Nottinghamshire’s Dillon Pennington, but he was ruled out of the upcoming series after picking up a hamstring injury.

This leaves Olly Stone and Matthew Potts as the options to complete an incredibly strong bowling attack, already including Gus Atkinson, Mark Wood, Woakes and Shoaib Bashir.

While it could leave England a tad light on the batting side with Lawrence filling in for Crawley in an unfamiliar role, there’s more than enough firepower in other spots.

Bring Sam Curran in

While England have not currently called anyone up to replace Stokes, it’s still a possibility, especially if the first Test doesn’t go to plan.

So, introducing the Bazball option. Sam Curran has played just one red ball game since 2022 and hasn’t represented the Test side since 2021.

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He averages just shy of 25 at Test level and last hit an international red-ball half-century in November 2018, against Sri Lanka in Pallekele. The potential downsides to him being directly airdropped in to replace Stokes are obvious.

But let’s look at the upsides. Curran has come out of the other side of his white-ball slump after earning the most expensive IPL contract ever in 2023.

He is currently the sixth-highest run scorer in the Hundred (176 off 102 balls from five innings) and has taken the second-most wickets (16). He took a hat-trick, a five-fer and scored 50 against London Spirit earlier this month.

He also hit his first professional T20 century earlier this summer, for Surrey against Hampshire in the Blast. Is it time to revisit Test cricket for the now-26-year-old? His last first-class appearance was July 2023, when he scored a first-innings 52 from 51 balls and took three for 100 from 37 overs, while at the depths of his slump.

Another option would be Curran’s Surrey teammate Jordan Clark – he is in fantastic County Championship form with bat and ball but at 33 he doesn’t fit this summer’s experimental profile.

Only use three seamers and bring in Jordan Cox

After Lawrence was promoted to opener, Jordan Cox was selected as the Test squad’s spare batter, meaning he would be first in line for selection if Stokes isn’t replaced by an all-rounder.

At just 23, wicketkeeper-batsman Cox averages 69 for Essex since joining this year, ruthlessly punishing former side Kent in the County Championship by scoring 116* from 89 balls in their first meeting and 207 from 255 in his second. That’s a very Bazball strike rate.

While No 6 is lower than Cox bats for Essex, he should be more than capable of adjusting and is a player set for a Test call-up sooner rather than later anyway.

This would leave England with just three seamers in their lineup, unless Bashir were dropped and Lawrence and Root trusted to bear the spinning burden.

Whether this would leave Wood having to bowl too many overs or place too much trust in the impressive but novice Gus Atkinson is unclear, but Cox would be an exciting stand-in option.