LONDON: In a big blow for England going into the fifth and final Test with the series 2-1 in their favour, captain Ben Stokes has been ruled out of the match due to right shoulder injury. The home team has also made three more changes in the Manchester Test playing XI with spinner Liam Dawson making way for spin-bowling all-rounder Jacob Bethell, who will bat at No 6. Pacers Jofra Archer and Brydon Carse have also been left out. Surrey bowlers Gus Atkinson and Jamie Overton were also included in the side, along with Nottinghamshire quick Josh Tongue.
"Yeah, obviously disappointed to not be able to finish the series," was the English skipper's response in the pre-match day press conference on Wednesday. Speaking of the injury, he said, "Yeah, I've got a decent tear in one of the muscles that I can't pronounce because I don't know how to say it. It took as long as we could to make that decision around that. Obviously, a bit of emotion going into this kind of stuff when you find out what you've done."
Stokes played a huge role for his team in this series. Currently he is leading wicket taker with 17 scalps and slammed a century, his first in more than two years, in the Manchester Test. His all-round show, especially at the Lord's and Manchester Tests, meant he was adjudged Player of the Match in both the contests.
Stokes, 34, in fact reached the Oval, the venue of the fifth Test, on Wednesday morning and contemplated his chance of playing as a specialist batter. He had a chat with the medical team and head coach Brendon McCullum before arriving at the final decision. "I came down here this morning to give myself every chance. Obviously, just to play as a batter, bowling was ruled out as soon as we got the scan results. But, yeah, I think you need that time chatting with the medical team, Baz, and then almost just 20 minutes to myself out there in the middle of the morning just to really be clear around the decision that we made," Stoked said.
"Yeah, it's one of those where you're weighing up the risk reward. The risk was way too high for damaging this any further than it currently is. I wouldn't expect to put anyone else, any of my other players at risk with an injury like this. I've got to start rehabbing now and obviously focus on what we've got coming up in the winter. I'm obviously very disappointed but I just needed a bit more time than I normally would give to these kinds of things to make a decision. It helps that we've got a really good strong squad to be able to select from to put a team out there that we think can get us a win this week."
Stokes made his Test comeback a couple of months back after recurrence of hamstring injury, which he sustained during the Hundred in August, forced him out during the New Zealand series in October last year. He underwent surgery in January and went four months rehabilitation before playing against Zimbabwe in a one-off series in May. The shoulder injury will take another six to seven weeks to heal as per the English captain.
On the last of the drawn fourth Test, Stokes had said in all likelihood it is very unlikely that he will miss the last match. But the scan results showed otherwise and he has to make the difficult decision. "That's what I did say, I don't want to eat my words. I woke up in the morning after that game and it was pretty sore. I wasn't surprised. The scan showed something. As I said, I left it to as late as possible. I thought about it properly with the medical guys and Baz and my own self. I wasn't surprised that something showed up," Stokes said.
Stokes affirmed he will get fit before the Ashes scheduled to begin in November. He, however, admitted the closely-contest series does take a toll on players mentally and physically. "It's very tough. You know, a lot of, yeah, especially out in the field, you know, it's bowling over, standing up there anyway. It's tiring. But then obviously the mental side of it as well is just as tiring. This series in particular, I think, has it gone to the last session? All of them, yeah. If that's even happened before in England, I wouldn't know. Yeah, it's been a tough, gruelling series, but it's class to play. It's a real test of character, it's a test of physicality, all that kind of stuff. And I think that the way in which both teams have, you know, fronted up every single day and every single session and given everything for, you know, their countries is testament to how much this format means to England and India and every other team in the world. Because, yeah, the easy option would be to just, I don't know, not turn up and give up. But, as you've seen, every team, both teams have turned up every single day and just given absolutely everything and left everything out on the field so far, and I don't see it being any different this week."
