da lvbet： England captain Ben Stokes hinted that the hosts will need “fresh legs” after nearly 900 overs in the field across the first four Tests
da bet esporte： Matt Roller27-Jul-2025
Ben Stokes felt some discomfort in his shoulder•Getty Images
England captain Ben Stokes told his players “pain is just an emotion”, as they toiled through 143 overs in India’s second innings at Old Trafford. But he has hinted that England would freshen up their bowling attack for the fifth and final Test at The Oval.Stokes bowled 11 overs – including eight in a row – on Sunday, but grimaced throughout and repeatedly clutched his right shoulder. He revealed after the teams shook hands on a draw that he had a sore biceps tendon. He said he had “been better” physically, but considered it “very unlikely” that he would not be fit enough to play in the fifth Test on Thursday.After taking his first five-wicket haul in eight years in India’s first innings, Stokes retired hurt while batting on Friday but re-emerged that evening and went on to score his first Test hundred in two years the following day. He did not bowl at all on Saturday, but after his spells on Sunday has bowled 140 in this series, a personal record.Related
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“It’s been a pretty big workload so far in the series,” he said. “I had a big week last week at Lord’s, with time spent out in the middle with bat in hand and obviously overs bowled, and then same again this week. I said it a few times to the guys out there: ‘pain is just an emotion.’ It’s just one of those things.”It is actually my bicep tendon. It obviously had quite a lot of workload through it, just been creeping around. But yeah, [I spent] a lot of time out in the middle doing my job as an allrounder this week and [it] just got a little bit flared up… It didn’t get any worse throughout the day, just stayed the same, so that’s why I kept on going.”England do not play another Test after this series until the Ashes in November, and Stokes has not played a white-ball international for nearly two years. He therefore expects to play at The Oval: “Hopefully, it settles down and we’ll be good as gold for the last game… I don’t want to eat my words, but the likelihood that I won’t play is very unlikely.”4:53
Stokes: ‘Too many loopholes’ in injury replacements idea
However, Stokes implied that England would need “fresh legs” for the fifth Test after nearly 900 overs in the field across the first four. Brydon Carse and Chris Woakes have played all four Tests, while Jofra Archer has played two in a row after a four-year absence from Test cricket. Gus Atkinson, Sam Cook, Jamie Overton and Josh Tongue are the other available options.”If you look at how long we’ve been out in the field and the overs that we bowled as a bowling unit, everyone is going to be pretty sore and pretty tired going into the last game of the series,” he said. “There’ll be an assessment of everyone, and hopefully we can use these next two or three days’ rest period wisely and then have to make a decision.”These recovery days are going to be pretty important and we might have to make a few decisions to get some fresh legs in. But that won’t be decided until we get closer to the last game.Chris Woakes has played all four Tests so far in the series•Getty Images
“We generally like to get our team out a couple of days before but we might have to just take a little bit longer going into this last game, because we want to give everyone as long as we possibly can to be able to recover.”Stokes was named Player of the Match for the second Test in a row after his all-round efforts at Lord’s. He has now won 12 of those in his Test career, the joint-second-most (with Ian Botham) for England, behind Joe Root (13), but told the BBC’s that it meant very little to him after the game petered out into a draw.”When you put in good performances for the team, your enjoyment of those is dictated by how you feel at the end of the Test match with the result,” he said. “I would obviously give the bottle of champagne and the medal back in a heartbeat if we ended up being on the right side of the result that we wanted.”He also refused to criticise the Old Trafford pitch, despite only 24 wickets falling across five days – including only two in the final five sessions. “I think ‘unacceptable’ is probably a bit too much,” he said. “It was a lot easier for the left-handers throughout this Test match… It certainly seemed a little more dead bowling to left-handers than it did to right-handers.”
