England captain Ben Stokes speaks all the way through a press convention at Edgbaston, Birmingham, England, Tuesday July 1, 2025. AP/PTI(AP07_01_2025_000203A)
England captain Ben Stokes on Sunday broke his silence about his availability for the 5th and ultimate Check of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, to be performed at The Oval from Thursday.Stokes mentioned he have been affected by ache in his proper bicep tendon—on best of more than a few different accidents—as he bowled most effective 12 overs all the way through India’s hard-fought draw at Outdated Trafford.“I do not need to devour my phrases, however the chance I would possibly not play may be very not going,” mentioned Stokes.“Mentally, I am respectable. Bodily, I have been higher.”“It is been a reasonably large workload thus far on this collection,” mentioned the England captain.“It used to be every other giant week within the 3rd Check at Lord’s, and the similar once more this week. Ache is solely an emotion, so it is simply a kind of issues.“It is my bicep tendon. It is had a large number of workload. It is a large number of time within the heart doing my activity. It did not get any worse. Confidently, it settles down and might be as just right as gold for the final recreation.”Stokes is the main wicket-taker on all sides within the England-India collection with 17 wickets—his maximum a success bowling go back throughout a 12-year Check profession. The 140 overs he has bowled within the collection could also be the very best workload of his profession.“It’s been a large 5 or 6 weeks,” he mentioned. “I can all the time give the whole thing I most likely can. I ask the blokes to check out to run thru a brick wall for the group, and I can all the time attempt to do the similar and lead via instance. Bowling and being within the box is hard paintings, so I’m beautiful sore.
Ballot
Will Ben Stokes play within the ultimate Check towards India?
“I believe everybody goes to be beautiful an identical: close it down, leisure up, and provides themselves the most productive likelihood of variety. I gained’t disguise clear of the truth that it’s been a tricky few days, particularly for the bowling unit. We love to get our group out a few days earlier than, however we would possibly need to take longer to present everybody as a lot time as conceivable to recuperate.“We’re stepping into 2-1 up, however we need to installed that one final giant efficiency. We stored pronouncing lately: one final push earlier than one final push subsequent week. There’s a large number of tough paintings nonetheless to move on this collection.”