Stokes tore the cartilage in his right knee during England’s crushing victory against Sri Lanka in the first Test at Headingley last week. Join The Roar for live scores from Day 3 of the match, starting from 8pm AEST.
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He then contributed nine catches from his role as wicketkeeper as the Sri Lankans could only manage 91 and 119 all out to give Trevor Bayliss men an innings-and-88-run victory.
Bairstow, England’s man of the match with an innings of 140 and nine catches on his own home ground at Headingley, is open to promotion up the order from number seven – a likely effect of Stokes’ unavailability.
However, after resumption, they mananged to put on just three more runs before being bowled out.
After taking four wickets in the first innings, Broad claimed the wicket of Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews in the second innings.
Anderson led the line with 5-28, following up the five wickets he took on Friday, with Steven Finn picking up three scalps.
Captain Alastair Cook had glowing praise for both, and voiced his delight that Bairstow is proving his own initial judgment correct – after being convinced the Yorkshireman would play for his country from the very first time he saw him bat back in 2010.
Dimuth Karunaratne fell to a beauty from Broad in the first innings – and following on 207 runs behind, Anderson had one for him too second time round, a delivery which lifted and left him for another catch behind by Bairstow.
The same combination then accounted for Kaushal Silva (14). But he was fortunate on 23 when a hard edge off Anderson went through the hands of James Vince at third slip.
The second Test against Sri Lanka will be the first that Stokes has missed since being recalled against West Indies in April previous year and is a blow to Durham, his county, who have struggled to sell tickets for the match and would have still been hoping for some late interest with the presence of a local star. Mendis was 47 not out and Dinesh Chandimal seven not out.
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Wickets continued to fall and, one ball after he had been hit on the elbow by Finn, Rangana Herath chipped the paceman to Broad at mid-off. Fittingly, it was Anderson who picked up the last batsman, knocking over Nuwan Pradeep’s stumps.
