James Anderson joins Joe Root in throwing his support behind Ben Stokes

James Anderson has followed England Test captain Joe Root in throwing his support behind Ben Stokes and hopes the all-rounder gets the help he needs to ‘come back strong’.

Stokes pulled out of contention for England’s upcoming five-match Test series against India on Saturday and will be taking an indefinite break from cricket to protect his mental health and rest his injured finger.

ECB chief Ashley Giles heaped praise on Stokes for the ‘tremendous courage’ he has displayed in being able to ‘open up about his feelings’ and there will be no pressure on the 30-year-old over a possible return date.

Speaking ahead of England’s opening Test with India, Root stressed that Stokes had the backing of the entire squad and urged his team-mate to ‘put himself first’ during his time away from the game.

‘I just want my friend to be okay. He’s one of my closest friends in the game,’ the England skipper told BBC Sport.

‘I hope he can get himself back to being Ben Stokes again – that’s all we all want.

‘As long as I’ve known Ben, he puts everyone else first, and now is an opportunity to put himself first.

‘He has my full support and he has the whole team’s full support on that. It’s important he takes as long as he needs.

‘This is an opportunity to be with his family and give himself the opportunity to feel like the best version of Ben Stokes.

‘We know from a cricketing point of view how good that is, and from a personal point of view he’s one of the greatest blokes I’ve ever played cricket with.’

Anderson echoed Root’s words ahead of the Trent Bridge Test – which begins on Wednesday – and called on Stokes to prioritise getting himself back to full strength both mentally and physically.

‘I thought Joe was absolutely amazing with how he spoke and the emotion he showed really speaks for the rest of the team,’ England’s all-time leading wicket taker told Sky Sports.

‘We just want Ben to be okay, we want him to get the help that he needs and comes back strong because he’s such a fantastic player for us.

‘The most important thing, he’s good mates with most of the guys here in the team, so we’re just concerned for his health more than anything and hope he’s alright.’

On the impact bio-secure bubbles have had on players’ mental wellbeing, Anderson added: ‘Obviously, it’s been a tough 18 months for everyone but for us, by now, we expected it to be relaxed a bit and unfortunately it’s not and we’re still having to live in it.

‘But hopefully it won’t be for too much longer and I think the fact that people are speaking out about it [their struggles] is [important] and we have got a lot of help around us as well which is great.

‘Hopefully it won’t be for too much longer and we can get through it.’

The Lancashire pace bowler went on: ‘A very important part of professional sport is being able to switch off and get away from it because the pressure it quite a lot.

‘So it’s difficult when you can’t have that time to switch off and get away from the game and hopefully in the next few months it’ll relax a little bit.’

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