England have made four changes to their XI for the series decider at the Oval
England captain Ben Stokes will miss the fifth Test against India after being ruled out with a right shoulder injury.
The muscle tear could impact his participation in the Ashes series against Australia starting in late November with the skipper facing several weeks of rehabilitation.
Stokes, whose deputy Ollie Pope will lead the team in his absence, has been battling a variety of fitness issues over the course of the series and has finally been laid low with a problem that reared its head during last week’s draw at Old Trafford.
“I am obviously disappointing to not be able to finish the series,” an emotional Stokes said as he addressed a press conference on Wednesday morning.
England XI: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope (c), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jacob Bethell, Jamie Smith (wk), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Jamie Overton, Josh Tongue
“I have got a decent tear of one of the muscles I can’t pronounce, I don’t know how to say it, but we took as long as we could to make that decision around that.
“A bit of emotion goes into this kind of stuff when you find out what you have done – bowling was ruled out as soon as we got the scan results.”
Stokes said the risk of causing further damage to too high had he played.
“I wouldn’t expect to put any one of my players at risk with an injury like this,” he said.
“I will start rehabbing now and obviously focus on what we have got coming up in the winter.”
The captain be replaced by Jacob Bethell, making his first Test appearance of the year in one of four changes to the England XI.
Liam Dawson has been dropped one match into his comeback, with England opting to go without a front-line spinner, while pace pair Jofra Archer and Brydon Carse are rested.
Three fresh quicks come into the side, with Surrey pair Gus Atkinson and Jamie Overton returning on home soil and Josh Tongue completing the line-up.
England do not play Test cricket again until the Ashes, meaning the 34-year-old could face a tight recovery period to be fit for the hotly-anticipated series.
Meanwhile India captain Shubman Gill has branded the intervention of Surrey’s chief groundsman Lee Fortis during nets at The Oval on Tuesday as “absolutely unnecessary”.
Fortis, the England and Wales Cricket Board’s ground manager of the year for the past three seasons, was involved in a heated exchange with India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir.
Tempers frayed with Fortis seemingly concerned about potential damage to the square and Gambhir clearly riled by the incident.
Gill said: “As a captain, I don’t know what it was all about. If a pitch creator is going to come and ask us to not look at the wicket or look at it from three metres behind, that is not something that has happened to us before.
“As long as I can remember there is no such instruction. If you are wearing rubber spikes or you are bare foot, I think you can see the wicket closely.
“What happened yesterday, I thought, is just absolutely unnecessary. A coach has every right to be able to go close quarters and have a look at the wicket.”
England lead India 2-1 in the series with the fifth Test to start at The Oval on Thursday.
