England hope their captain and veteran all-rounder Ben Stokes will fight against his bout of cramps and lead the charge with the ball on the final day of the Manchester Test. After a stunning century on the fourth morning at Old Trafford following his first-innings five-for, Stokes did not bowl through England’s 62 overs in the second innings as well. Meanwhile, India’s KL Rahul and Shubman Gill added a 174-run partnership, pushing the contest into a fifth day as well.
“He’s a bit stiff and sore,” said Marcus Trescothick, England’s assistant coach, while talking 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.”
“It’s just a build-up,” Trescothick shared again. “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.”
He also acknowledged that if Ben Stokes can’t bowl, it would help the visitors. Yet he expressed confidence in the rest of the team to step up on the final day as well.
READ HERE: “The reality is I was tired” – Jasprit Bumrah on not celebrating five-fer
“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,” he stated.
“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,” he shared.
Marcus Trescothick also suggested that resting Ben Stokes from bowling on Day 4 may have been part of England’s plan to preserve him for the all-important final push. He also admitted managing a player like Ben Stokes is a delicate thing, considering his relentless desire to be involved in every facet of the game as well.
“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,” he shared.
“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 Lord’s 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,” Marcus Trescothick concluded.
