England skipper Ben Stokes, who was having hamstring issues and yet scored a match-defining knock of 141 runs against India in the fourth Test of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy in Manchester, did not come up to bowl in the second innings. The English all-rounder had picked a five-wicket haul in the first innings and former India captain Ravi Shastri believes Stokes is keeping himself available to bowl on a crucial Day 5.
“You mentioned Stokes – I think he’s preserving himself for tomorrow. There’ll be one burst from him tomorrow when needed and when he thinks, you know, now’s the time to really bowl those five or six overs, he’ll come and bowl it,” said Shastri to Sky Sports.
“It’s a new ball track. When it’s hard and new, things happen quickly, especially with these overhead conditions. When it’s overcast, you get your best chance for movement. With a new ball, there’s opportunity, but once the sun comes out and the ball’s 10-15 overs old, it becomes a very good batting track. If England wants to make an impact, they need to strike in that first hour, then wait for the second new ball,” he added.
India is looking to save the fourth Test as the visitors, trailing by over 300 runs after the first innings, were two down for no score. From there, skipper Shubman Gill and opener KL Rahul stayed in the middle for two entire sessions, giving India a glimmer of hope to save the Test by scoring an unbeaten stand of 174 for the third wicket.
With a fine century on Saturday, Stokes became only the fourth England cricketer to have scored a century and taken a five-wicket haul in the same Test match. Stokes, who had claimed five wickets for 72 runs during India’s first innings in the match, matched the feat achieved by Tony Greig, Ian Botham and Gus Atkinson for England previously.
On Stokes not bowling in the second innings, former England captain Nasser Hussain said: “The fact that he hasn’t bowled at all tells us something. We all know Ben Stokes. If it were just cramp or stiffness, he’d test it out. But seeing him check that hamstring area – that’s not a new injury. He’s clearly had problems there before. Honestly, you could argue he shouldn’t even be on the field given his importance to the team.”
“England’s problem is that Stokes has to play every game as captain. While others like Archer get rotated or Bumrah plays three, Stokes has to play in all five Test. And in those five, he has to bat. He has to bowl. He’s doing it so well that he’s going to be absolutely exhausted,” he added.
