OVAL TEST
Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer will miss the fifth and final Test © Getty
The hard-fought first edition of the Anderson-Tendulkar series winds into its Oval finale with a trail of weary bodies and missing stars. Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer are confirmed absentees, and Jasprit Bumrah remains a doubtful starter. India’s pace spearhead arrived on this tour with a quiet clause, one forged in the fire of self-preservation, that he would play no more than three Tests. Stokes’ absence, meanwhile, is a function of the brutal demands he has faced, and often invited upon himself.
Across four Tests, the England captain has bowled 140 overs of wholehearted toil, picking up 17 wickets at 25.23. At Lord’s, he delivered 9- and 10-over spells; at Manchester, a final-day eight-over burst came despite a flaring bicep issue. At the end of the drawn Test, he had dared to hope he wouldn’t have to eat his words, that he might still make it to The Oval.
But the decider will unfold without him.
Stokes has long been a case study in workload management, a cricketer coming off surgery, who, in Manchester, scaled the summit only three others in England whites had ever reached: a century and a five-wicket haul in the same Test. But even if the gap before the final match had been longer than the meagre three days it is, Stokes may still not have made it. The schedule, though, is worth scrutiny.
The breaks (in days) between Tests have swung between extremes – 7, 3, 8, 3 – squeezing the build-up to both London matches. Stokes, no stranger to five-match marathons, gently questioned the wisdom of it.
“I guess you can look back on a five-game series… could the gaps between games be done a little better,” he said on Wednesday (July 30). “You’ve had two eight and nine-day turnarounds and two-three days, maybe you could look at making it all fives for every game so there’s consistency. It has been tough for both teams. It’s been a lot of overs for bowlers, lots of time out on the field. That’s part of the game but maybe you could look at if we needed to have 8-9 day breaks and then three days. Could it be four or five for each?”
Some of this is dictated by the calendar. Counties prefer their Test matches to begin mid-week, ensuring the weekends, and the turnstiles, are buzzing.
Bumrah has bolwed 119.4 overs across three Tests this series ©Getty
From the other camp, Shubman Gill pointed to the series’ sheer intensity. Each of the four Tests has gone the distance, 59 out of 60 sessions played, a stat that explains both the fatigue and the frustration. “One of the most important things in this series has been that all the matches have gone up till five days. And not just 5 days, the last session of the five days. I can’t remember a series where all the four Test matches that were played went up until that last of a moment.
“So it’s definitely hard. Three days is too less of a turnaround when both the teams are playing such hard cricket. But then also we understand if you keep giving five or six days after every match, the tour feels and becomes very long. So yes, it is something that I think the decision has been taken by the boards and we trust the decision that they take,” he added.
Gill expressed sympathy for his opposite number and acknowledged that England would feel the absence of Stokes deeply. But he also knew that the weight of responsibility came back onto his own bowlers, those who had laboured through nearly 160 overs in Manchester before finally finding respite as India’s batters held firm to save the Test.
“A big miss definitely for England. I think whenever he comes on to bowl or bat, he always makes things interesting, he always makes something happen,” Gill said of Stokes. “So from their perspective, I think it is definitely a loss for them. But having said that, the players who come in to play for the country, they are as competitive and they bring as much as to the table as any of the players.
“I think we also fielded around 160 [157.1] overs. It is not easy when you field for three days. Especially on wickets where fast bowling is used more than spinners.
“[But] I think our fast bowlers and our team, they are in a good space. Luckily, our players are not as unavailable as they are. But having said that, our playing XI and combination… I didn’t come yesterday. I came today to see the wicket and how the weather is going to be for the next five days, that will also be important. After seeing that, we will decide our combination and playing eleven this evening.”
© Cricbuzz
