I should be good for the last Test, says Stokes

Ben Stokes praised India’s fightback in the Old Trafford Test, ruled out injury replacement rules for Test cricket, and confirmed he feels physically better despite a heavy workload ahead of the final game.

Hyderabad: England captain Ben Stokes, who has been the most influential all-rounder in the ongoing Test series at home against India, said that he was mentally decent and physically much better.

“I don’t want to eat my words, but the likelihood I won’t play is very unlikely,” said Stokes after India pulled off a face-saving draw against England in the fourth Test at Old Trafford on Sunday to level the five-match Test series two-all.

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Reflecting on his own fitness, Stokes said it had been a pretty big workload so far in the series. “It was another big week in the third Test at Lord’s, the same again this week. Pain is just an emotion, so it’s just one of those things,” he said.

“It’s my bicep tendon. It’s a lot of workload. It’s a lot of time in the middle doing my job. It didn’t get any worse. Hopefully it settles down and will be as good as gold for the last game,” Stokes said.

“You look at how long we have been out in the field and the overs we have bowled, everyone is going to be pretty sore and pretty tired,” said Stokes. “There will be an assessment of everyone and hopefully we can use these next days of rest wisely. 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,” the England captain said.

“Yes, we’re 2-1 up, but we want to go out and put that last big performance in. We know there’s a lot of hard work to go into the end of the series,” said Stokes.

“We set this game up really well. We played the game in the way we wanted to. I give a lot of credit to the way India were able to play the way they did. It just wasn’t meant to be this week,” the all-rounder said.

On Indian head coach Gautam Gambhir’s comments that he was all for the introduction of injury replacements in Test cricket (currently only concussion replacements are allowed), Stokes said it would be absolutely ridiculous as it would create too many loopholes.

“You pick your XI for a game and injuries are part of the game,” said Stokes. “I completely understand the concussion replacement, because that is player welfare and safety.

“I honestly think the conversation should stop around injury replacements. If you stick me in an MRI scanner, I could get another player in straight away,” Stokes said.