MANCHESTER TESR
After a commanding century and a five-fer in the first innings, the England captain has battled cramps ahead of the final day, leaving England’s attack stretched © Getty
England remain hopeful their captain and talisman, Ben Stokes, will shake off his bout of cramps and lead the charge with the ball on the final day of the Manchester Test. After a commanding century on the fourth morning at Old Trafford – complementing his first-innings five-for – Stokes did not bowl through England’s 62 overs in the second innings. Meanwhile, India’s KL Rahul and Shubman Gill wove a resilient 174-run partnership, pushing the contest into a fifth day.
“He’s a bit stiff and sore,” said Marcus Trescothick, England’s assistant coach, when asked about Stokes’ chances of bowling on Sunday. “He’s had quite a big workload in the last few weeks, and then batting in the first innings, he was getting quite a bit of cramp. We are hoping that with another night’s rest and a bit more physio work overnight, he’ll be back and doing a bit tomorrow.”
England, still heavy favourites in a Test they’ve dominated from the outset, found their attack flagging without the series’ leading wicket-taker. Stokes first felt the cramps while batting on the third evening and retired hurt on 66, only to return later and reach a superb 141, breaking a two-year drought of Test hundreds. Along the way, he joined an elite trio – Gary Sobers and Jacques Kallis – by scoring 7,000 runs and taking 200 wickets in Tests.
When England resumed bowling in the second innings, Stokes was seen clutching his hamstring. Though Trescothick eased injury fears, the strain speaks to a punishing workload. After carefully managing his bowling across the first two Tests, Stokes delivered marathon spells of nine and ten overs on the final day at Lord’s. Add another 24 overs in Manchester’s first innings, and his tally for the series reaches 129 overs.
“It’s just a build-up,” Trescothick explained. “It’s such a heavy workload, from where he’s been to what he’s doing. It’s just trying to monitor it, and obviously the cramp that he was getting yesterday, you have that little bit of worry… We’ll see what he’s like tomorrow.”
The former England opener acknowledged that if Stokes can’t bowl, it would leave a major void given his influence. Yet he expressed confidence in the rest of the side to step up. “Well, of course, you know, you take anybody out of a four-man attack or five-man attack, it creates a hole. And when you’re trying to push for victory on a pitch that is, you know, quite tricky and gets quite slow after the ball gets older. You know, let’s not forget, he got five wickets in the first innings as well.
“So, of course, it’s challenging. And it’s never great when, you know, bowlers go down or, you know, you don’t have someone available to do the work you need to do. It’s then just up to everybody else to sort of pick up pieces and do the extra workload. You’ll probably see Joe Root bowl a little bit more if he’s not available. But let’s just wait and see. Hopefully, fingers crossed, it’ll be all OK by tomorrow.”
Though not privy to all details, Trescothick suggested that resting Stokes from bowling today may have been part of England’s plan to preserve him for the decisive final push. That said, Stokes still had to field, so as to not have to wait that much time to begin bowling on Day 5. The assistant coach also admitted managing a player like Stokes is a delicate balance, given his relentless desire to be involved in every facet of the game.
“He loves bowling, he loves batting, he loves diving around in the field, sprinting and doing everything he can do. He is that person who just wants to be involved in the game all the time.
“And of course, as anybody progresses in their career, they pick up little niggles or injuries that may be a little bit more prone as you go along. So, you have to manage everybody as they get a little bit longer in the tooth. And him, no different because of his impact obviously being captain of the team, you want him playing as many games as possible.
“So, of course, if we can somehow find a way to limit the amount of overs he bowls in particular, then, of course, we have done. And maybe we’ve seen it at different stages throughout this series already where he hasn’t necessarily bowled those mammoth spells like he did in previous times. I know at Lords he did over the course of in-between days and either side of tea or whatever it may be.
“But if you find a way, if we can find a way, then, of course, it will benefit. The more games he can string together as a captain and as a leader in the group and the all-rounder he is, the better that’s going to be for the team, of course.”
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