Ben Stokes back as test captain after investigation finds he did not witness attacks

Monday, 22 June 2026

Ben Stokes will captain England this week after the investigation into his Chelsea night out found he did not even witness two “unprovoked attacks” on Gus Atkinson.

Stokes and Atkinson are back in the squad for a crunch decider against New Zealand at Trent Bridge on Thursday after England lost by 253 runs at the Oval on Sunday.

Soon after, the England and Wales Cricket Board confirmed that an investigation into the conduct of Stokes and Atkinson found they had “breached specific contractual obligations that require England players to at all times maintain the highest standards of conduct and act in the best interests of England cricket”.

But absent from the statement was the word “curfew” amid confusion about the team’s protocols. In the days after the incident, the England management was furious that the players had breached the curfew brought in – at the behest of Stokes – after an Ashes winter dogged by stories about the players’ late-night behaviour.

Brendon McCullum, the England head coach, admitted that “ambiguity” over the wording of the team’s curfew protocols would need to be “tightened up”, raising pressure on the team management’s eye for detail, particularly Rob Key, the director of cricket.

Telegraph Sport reported earlier this month that Totoa Auvaa, a Saracens rugby player, took a swing at Atkinson in the Rex Rooms nightclub in Chelsea in the early hours of June 8. It missed, and connected instead with England’s security guard, James Shaw, who required stitches. The ECB has now confirmed Stokes did not see the incident.

The ECB statement read: “The evidence the ECB has seen demonstrates that Atkinson was the victim of unprovoked attacks and did not retaliate on either occasion. Stokes was not involved in the altercation and did not witness either incident.”

As well as being effectively suspended for the second test, the players have been given a written warning, but not fined. The Cricket Regulator found that there was no further case to answer.

In the course of the investigation, a dispute emerged over the curfew. The team management, led by Key, has given short shrift to the notion that players did not know there was a curfew in place. Speaking three days after the incident, Key said Atkinson claimed not to know the curfew was in place, but that players had been made aware by their representatives at the Team England Player Partnership earlier this year.

Now, though, McCullum says things will need to be spelt out more clearly, adding that it was “annoying” that players kept getting themselves in trouble. In Wellington in November, Harry Brook was punched by a nightclub bouncer hours before captaining England in an one-day international. The team then went on a boozy mid-tour break to Noosa on the Queensland coast when 2-0 down in the Ashes.

“Look, even if there is ambiguity I think we’ve sat here and talked about the curfew, talked about standards, talked about many things we want to be known for as a cricket team,” McCullum said.

“So I think fundamentally when you represent your country you have certain standards you need to live up to and you’re not just representing yourself, you’re representing your family, the fans, the country. And you’re being paid to do it. You’ve got to have certain standards you need to adhere to. To suggest that perhaps whilst there may not have been a hard blueprint potentially, I mean like a hard factual [curfew], everyone knew what was going on.

“It is quite annoying, to be totally honest, constantly having to deal with these issues. I like creating an environment where guys feel free, they are enjoying themselves, having a good time, travelling the world, trying to handle the pressures of playing international cricket, but I don’t condone some of the stuff we have done and I’ve been very strong on that.

“I will continue to be strong on it. In regards to making sure we have things better documented so there is no uncertainty around it, that is something we will do. It is incredibly disappointing that we have had to deal with those issues. I would like us to just become a better cricket team. It would be nice if that was our focus, rather than some of the other stuff we have had to deal with.”

McCullum said the curfew would be “better documented” in future.

McCullum said he had spoken to Stokes every day this week, and Key had been to the North East to see the captain. Stokes scored 95 for Durham on Saturday, after which he was withdrawn from the championship match to ready himself for Trent Bridge.

“Ben will be back and will be captain, everyone is excited about that, especially after seeing him hit some form for Durham,” McCullum said. “My view has not changed, I’ve been speaking to him every day since the incident and my assessment was that I was worried about him. To see him play some cricket and look like he was enjoying himself was really positive, so I’m not going to divulge our conversations because they are confidential and I look forward to seeing him.

“We’ve worked together intimately for four years, we’ve achieved some cool things and we’ve let ourselves down in other things. Our motivation and our belief and our vision for this side has not wavered. We still want to make the England team the best possible team we can and have long-term sustainable success.

“I anticipate we’ll be able to work together really well with the week coming and I’m sure both of us still have that same vision for this cricket team.”

In addition to Stokes and Atkinson, there are returns to the squad for Ollie Robinson and Jamie Smith, who missed the Oval test through injury and paternity leave respectively. James Rew and Sonny Baker, two of three debutants this week, are dropped, while Rehan Ahmed, who scored a century for Leicestershire on Saturday, will compete with Shoaib Bashir for the spinner’s spot.