England made a blistering start to the fourth day of the fourth Test but may need centurion Ben Stokes’s bowling abilities to break down India
England are holding their breath captain Ben Stokes will be available to bowl as they push to seal a Test series victory over India at Old Trafford.
Having turned an overnight 77 into 141 for a first Test century in two years to propel England to 669 and a 311-run first-innings lead on Saturday, Stokes was then conspicuously absent for the 63 overs India batted, with even Joe Root called upon to bowl five.
Stokes claimed 5-72 in India’s first innings but restricted himself to fielding duties as Shubman Gill and KL Rahul helped the tourists recover from 2-0 to 174 without further loss.
Stokes has pushed himself to the limit this summer but there is a suspicion this is catching up with him, having struggled with cramp in his left leg when he was batting on Friday, briefly retiring hurt.
But he showed no obvious signs when batting or fielding of the issue lingering. Indeed, he was put through his paces first thing when England resumed on 544 for seven as he had to scamper to complete a single, getting home despite despite Anshul Kamboj’s direct hit from mid-on.
Asked if he will be fit to bowl on the final day, with England looking to move into an unassailable 3-1 series lead, England assistant Marcus Trescothick said: “We’re hoping so.
“We’re hoping another night’s rest and physio work overnight that he’ll be back. It’s just a build-up (of things). He’s had quite a big workload in the last few weeks. It’s just trying to monitor it.”
Stokes underwent surgery on his left hamstring at the start of the year, but he has already bowled the most overs he ever has in a series, even if he leads the wicket-taking charts with 16 at 24.75.
He has proved his all-round worth in Manchester by becoming the fourth Englishman – after Tony Greig, Ian Botham and Gus Atkinson – to record a century and five-for in the same match.
Stokes then moved into the 7,000 runs, 200 wickets club in Tests – Jacques Kallis and Sir Garfield Sobers are the other members – in style by belting Washington Sundar back over his head for six.
Ravindra Jadeja was twice taken the distance by Stokes as England went beyond 650, but he and Brydon Carse, who made a useful 47, holed out to the spinner, leaving India a tricky 15-minute period to bat before lunch.
Ashes 2005-winning captain Michael Vaughan said on the BBC’s Test Match Special: “Ben is a super-human at times. He was probably hoping that they would get the wickets and he wasn’t going to be required.
“Maybe the medical staff just said ‘Ben, have a day off’.
“We’ve got 10 other guys who are capable of doing special things also. It’s never great when bowlers go down or you don’t have someone available to do the work you need them to do, it’s then just up to everybody else to pick up the pieces and do the extra work.”
Chris Woakes made the breakthrough with his fourth ball when Yashasvi Jaiswal was squared up and edged to first slip, where Joe Root was unable to cling on at the first attempt but scooped up the rebound.
Sai Sudharsan was then surprised by the extra bounce as his attempt to shoulder arms caught the edge to Harry Brook but Gill survived the hat-trick ball, struck on the pads and obviously drifting down leg.
He was still on nought when Jofra Archer lobbied Stokes to query a yorker that speared into Gill’s pads immediately after lunch. However, third umpire Kumar Dharmasena was unable to discern whether Gill’s bat or pad had been struck first so Ahsan Raza’s original decision stood and England lost a review.
Gill was then struck on the bottom glove in the same over, which he took off to reveal a bandaged hand, but India’s number four refused to be cowed and rode out the storm before finding some fluency.
There were two eye-catching, back-to-back straight drives for four off Brydon Carse, who drew Gill’s edge on 46 only for Dawson to spill a difficult chance diving to his right at backward point.
Stokes stayed out of the attack and Rahul came out of his shell, catching up with then overtaking Gill.
Rahul continued his record of a 50-plus score in every Test in this series and he and Gill patiently saw India through to stumps in glorious batter-friendly conditions.