Ben Stokes has received a warm welcome upon rejoining the England squad in New Zealand, ending his five-month exile from international cricket.
Stokes pleaded not guilty to affray at Bristol Magistrates' Court on Tuesday and boarded a plane at Heathrow the following day to resume work with England ahead of an anticipated on-field return later this month.
The all-rounder landed in Auckland mid afternoon, having travelled via Abu Dhabi and Melbourne and was met by three members of the England and Wales Cricket Board's support staff at Auckland airport before a 120km drive to the team hotel in Hamilton.
On hand to greet him were team-mates Liam Plunkett and David Willey.
The former will play no further part on England's tour of New Zealand after the recurrence of a hamstring strain, while the latter was pushing his five-month old son in a buggy, alongside physio Craig de Weymarn.
Stokes embraced all three in turn and spoke for several minutes before heading for his room.
He was expected to join several squad members to watch New Zealand's tri-series game against Australia.
The 26-year-old's last involvement with England came during a one-day international against the West Indies in Bristol on September 24.
Later that night he allegedly became involved in an altercation outside a nightclub, leading to a lengthy police investigation during which he was deemed unavailable for selection.
Stokes went on to miss the entire 4-0 Ashes defeat, the subsequent ODI campaign and the ongoing T20 tri-series.
England had already trained indoors at Seddon Park by time he landed but Stokes is expected to take some part in Saturday's practice session at the ground.
There is understood to be no chance of him playing against New Zealand 24 hours later, with England keen to ease him back in and assess his condition before sending him back out in a competitive environment.
Instead, Stokes' focus will be on pushing for selection for the ODI series against New Zealand, which begins on February 25.
Plunkett, who suffered a grade one tear in his left hamstring midway through last month's one-day international series against Australia, sat out the first two matches of the T20 series but returned in the defeat by the Black Caps on Tuesday, when he aggravated the original problem.
After assessment from medical staff, the Yorkshire seamer has now been ruled out of Sunday's rematch and the five ODIs which follow.
