JUST when he had a chance of breaking into England’s one-day squad, Durham’s Ben Stokes has been ruled for six to eight weeks.

The right index finger he dislocated in the field yesterday evening has had to be pinned and there is also some ligament damage.

Stokes, who will be 20 on Saturday, suffered the injury when trying to catch a fierce cut from Lancashire’s Paul Horton.

The powerfully-built left-hander has scored 609 championship runs this season at an average of 55.36 with three centuries. He has also taken 17 wickets at 33 with his brisk seam bowling and became the first player to score 150 in a one-day match for Durham at Edgbaston ten days ago.

Stokes also made two centuries last season and records suggest that the only other English batsman to have scored five first-class hundreds before his 20th birthday was Denis Compton.

Such is the power of his striking that he became only the second batsman to clear the Don Robson Pavilion at the Emirates Durham ICG yesterday. He achieved the feat twice in his innings of 185 against Lancashire and there is little doubt that the England selectors had him under consideration for this summer’s one-day series.

Durham closed in on their third successive innings win when they took two wickets around the hour mark this morning and a third 20 minutes later, leaving them with four more to earn.

The first two fell with the total on 94 with Mark Chilton the first to go when he pushed forward and edged Mitch Claydon to first slip.

Then nightwatchman Gary Keedy swung across the line and was bowled by Ian Blackwell before Graham Onions picked up his third wicket of the innings by pinning Steven Croft with a full-length swinger. On 106 for six Lancashire were still 167 behind.