 "Ben Stokes hints at return to bowling duties: 'I bowled at 100 percent in warm-ups'")
England’s faltering hopes in the ICC World Test Championship and in the series against India could receive a massive boost with the news that skipper Ben Stokes may return to bowling duties for the fourth Test in Ranchi.
Stokes hasn’t bowled in the first three Tests of the series as he continues to recover from an operation on his knee in November last year. India have won two Tests on the trot to hold a 2-1 series lead in the five-match contest.
The England player started bowling in the warm-ups. He started in Visakhapatnam before the second Test and stepped up the intensity in Rajkot over the last week, and has been bowling back at his full pace.
Stokes last bowled competitively in June, during the second Test against Australia, and was adamant he won’t bowl against India after a “pinky-promise” with his physiotherapist. But speaking after England's heavy defeat in Rajkot, Stokes re-opened the door, given progress has been “a lot faster than I thought [it] would”. He added that there was possibility of bowling in the match as well.
“I’m not saying yes, I’m not saying no,” he answered, when asked about bowling in the fourth or fifth Test. “Me being me, I’m always very optimistic about most things. That will be a more detailed chat with the medical team about what workload I have done to pass me off as not being a massive risk.
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View All“I managed to bowl at 100% in one of the warm-up days here which made me feel pretty good. I felt like I could have bowled in the game but that would have been stupid.”
Speaking on Monday, England head coach Brendon McCullum was boosted by Stokes’ confidence and hoped the skipper won’t do something drastic, he had the responsibility to ensure sense prevailed.
“Well, it’s good that he’s actually getting into a state where he thinks he might bowl,” McCullum said. “But Ben is clever; he’s really clever as well. He won’t bowl unless he thinks he’s legitimately able to bowl. The problem would be if he starts getting into a spell and then he can’t get out of the spell. So we’ll see what unfolds.
“If he does get that bit between his teeth, then let’s see where the danger lies there and try and pull him away from it. But it’s a good sign.”
If Stokes does make himself available, England have the option of altering their XI drastically or see him join James Anderson and Mark Wood to form a three-player pace attack.
McCullum said a decision on Stokes’ bowling availability and the make-up of the final XI would not be made until the team gets the chance to look at the conditions in Ranchi and that all members of the travelling party would come into contention of featuring.
“We’ve got two really good options on the sideline as well with Ollie Robinson and Gus Atkinson,” McCullum posed.
“So we’ve got a really good squad to pick from. We just need to work out when we get there what conditions we’re going to be confronted with and see the health of the army, and then make a decision on what we go with.
“Obviously we haven’t seen the conditions in Ranchi yet. I think it might spin. I guess it should spin but we’ll see when we get there. But, look, we’re really comfortable with what we’ve got and we’re certainly not going to add to the squad.
“We’ve got a group of players here who have played some outstanding cricket so far over the last three Test matches and whatever XI we decide to go with we will fully back. Hopefully we’ll be in a different situation to what we’re in now.”
England Test squad: Ben Stokes (c), Rehan Ahmed, James Anderson, Gus Atkinson, Jonny Bairstow, Shoaib Bashir, Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ben Foakes, Tom Hartley, Ollie Pope, Ollie Robinson, Joe Root, Mark Wood
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