- yesterday
England captain Ben Stokes previews the final Test with India at the Oval.
30/07/2025
The Oval, London, UK
30/07/2025
The Oval, London, UK
Category
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SportsTranscript
00:00It was Barbie Girl, wasn't it?
00:26The last time the music was Barbie Girl or whatever it was.
00:29It was.
00:32What do you want to do?
00:34Do you remember that?
00:40Camera's all good at the bat, please.
00:43Yeah, all good.
00:44England captain Ben Stokes, we're going to go with James.
00:47Go ahead, please.
00:48Ben, obviously very disappointing news.
00:50How are you feeling?
00:51Yeah, obviously disappointed to not be able to finish the series.
00:58Yeah, disappointed.
01:00How serious is the injury?
01:02What's the nature of it?
01:03Yeah, I've got a decent tear of one of the muscles that I can't pronounce because I don't know how to say it.
01:09It took as long as we could to make that decision around that.
01:18Obviously a bit of emotion going into this kind of stuff when you find out what you've done.
01:24I came down here this morning to give myself every chance of seeing just to play as a batter.
01:30Obviously bowling was ruled out as soon as we got the scan results.
01:33But yeah, I think you need sort of that time chatting with the medical team, Baz, and then almost just 20 minutes to myself out there in the morning just to really be clear around the decision that we made.
01:49It's one of those where weighing up the risk reward and the risk was way too high for damaging this any further than it currently is.
02:04I didn't want to put myself, and I wouldn't expect to put anyone else, any of my players at risk with an injury like this.
02:11So look, start rehabbing now and obviously focus on what we've got coming up in the winter.
02:18So yeah, obviously very disappointed, but just almost needed a bit more time than normally would give to these kind of things to make a decision.
02:26It helps that we've got a really good strong squad to be able to select from to put a team out there that we think can get us a win this week.
02:32How long do you think you'll be out?
02:35Once the series was done, I was feet up anyway.
02:38So yeah, it doesn't really make too much difference to what I've got from the end of the series up until the winter anyway.
02:46And looking at the team without you in it, I know it was a difficult position to be in.
02:50You're a huge loss in terms of the balance of the attack.
02:53How do you assess the side that you do have now going into this test?
02:56We're still able to field at 11.
02:59That's going to give us a very good chance of winning this game and winning the series.
03:05That's the benefit of having a very strong squad and some pretty bloody good cricketers to be able to choose from when we find ourselves in a situation like this.
03:14So let's put all the concentration on T11 that we've got out there this week.
03:20And we're very confident that we've got the ability to be able to win this game and hopefully win the series.
03:27Jacob Bethel comes in, bats down at six.
03:30There's been a lot of talk about him, a lot of hype about him.
03:33How do you think he'll deal with that?
03:35Yeah, pretty good. I think there was a lot more hype and a lot more pressure on his shoulders in New Zealand when he got given that chance of batting at three and he handled that pretty well.
03:44I think being the type of player that he is where he, you know, plays all three formats probably allows him to be a bit more versatile with where he bats in the order.
03:57You know, he batted at three in New Zealand, did very well.
04:00And yeah, he gets to sliding at six.
04:03And so look, I'm very confident of his ability, he's a quality player.
04:07I think we all know that.
04:08So, yeah, look, we weren't going to change the batting order at all.
04:14It was just quite an easy slot in for him to come in at six.
04:17And just looking back to how it finished in Old Trafford, there's been a bit of needle throughout the series.
04:21Any regrets? Would you do it differently looking back?
04:24No regrets, but I think it's one of those where you're, when you've not been there in the field for 250 overs,
04:35you do have a bit more of an understanding towards, you know, both sides.
04:41You know, two lads, Jadeja and Washington, played incredibly well up until that point.
04:46So you sort of understand as to why they wanted to stay out there and get the hundreds.
04:51But again, like I said at the end of the game, fair enough.
04:56But I'm not going to bowl any of my bowlers in a situation there where we can't win the game and expose any of those guys to injury.
05:07So it's just we're over it.
05:09I think India are over that whole thing.
05:11Just let's just try our best not to focus too much on a 20 minute period of cricket.
05:17Yeah, when it's been such a good series so far.
05:21And Friday will be a day for Thorpey in memory of Graham Thorpe, a man who influenced you a great deal.
05:26I know just can you sum up how important that will be to you on Friday?
05:31I know you won't be out there, but the sentiment and the tributes that will be paid.
05:35Yeah, Thorpey's been a very influential character as a player and as a coach in English cricket.
05:45You know, a few of us in that dressing room now spent a lot of time around him when we were younger coming through the ranks.
05:51As you know, and then as we got into the into the main team, you know, Thorpey spent a lot of years around us.
05:58So, yeah, it's going to be a special day for, you know, all English fans, special day for his family to be able to see how much he meant to English cricket
06:14and how much he means to, you know, the current England dressing room.
06:19So, yeah, it's obviously will be an emotional day, I think, for a lot of people, but also a day where, yeah, one of the greats of the game and greats of English game can be appreciated.
06:34Go Joe, Rory and then Will.
06:36Ben, you worked so hard to get into position to play such a big role in this series, you know, the full all rounder role, you know, everything you've been at the centre of for England.
06:46People have loved watching that. Also, people have perhaps been saying, look, Ben, could you take it easy?
06:52Do you think there's anything more you could have actually done to manage your workload in that sense over the course of the four test matches so far?
06:59No, not at all. When I'm out on the field, I play to win. I give absolutely everything that I possibly can if I feel like there's a moment in a game where I need to put everything that I'm feeling aside, I'll do that.
07:20Because it's how much this team means to me, it's how much playing for England means to me and it's how much winning means to me.
07:25But there's absolutely nothing that I could have done before. You know, being a professional sportsman injuries is part of this game and can't do anything about them.
07:39You are such a big figure in this England team, everyone knows it. How do you expect this test match to pan out in terms of your influence on the team, Ben, even though you're not out there in the field?
07:49We've got some incredible leaders out in that 11 still, you know, I know I'm a captain, but I seek, you know, advice from quite a few people who've got some fantastic cricket brains out there.
08:02And, you know, we've got a team of 11 match winners. One person doesn't win you a game. And yeah, just because I'm not playing or I'm playing doesn't mean that we're going to win or lose.
08:17We've had people put in some pretty special individual performances throughout this game. And this is another opportunity for 11 different people to be able to put their hand up and hopefully win a game for England as well.
08:30Ben, you mentioned thinking about the winter ahead now, like when you got the information from the medical team, did you ask the question? Did you say like, how does this affect the ashes?
08:42Not like that, no. It was more of a, what's the risk here? What's the worst possible thing with where this current injury is at to where it could head to?
08:56And yeah, hearing where it could head to was not something that, yeah, it was worth taking the risk of.
09:04If you'd have played this week, it was potentially pretty bleak?
09:07Well, I could have played this week and nothing happened, but I also could have played this week and something worse happened. So, yeah, as again, it's a risk reward.
09:15I'll always try and push myself as much as I possibly can. So, yeah, for me to say it's not the right decision, probably understand where it's at.
09:26And I think I probably know the answer to this question, but you'll be around this week supporting Oli?
09:30Definitely.
09:31Will, please, and then we'll go Chris.
09:34Hi Ben, when we saw you on Sunday, you didn't seem to think there was any chance of you missing this game really.
09:41Did you have a sense of it then and were you quite shocked when these scam results came back?
09:46That's why I did say I don't want to eat my words. Look, I woke up in the morning after that game and it was, yeah, it was pretty sore.
09:56So, yeah, I wasn't surprised that Scam showed something. But yeah, as I said, left it to as late as possible,
10:06thought about it properly with, you know, the medical guys and Buzz and my own self. But yeah, I wasn't surprised that something showed up.
10:15Do you think the schedule for a series like this now is too tightly packed?
10:20If you look at this game, getting to the end of it without you, Jasper Bumbo's not going to play, I don't think.
10:24Joffre, Brian Kass, there's been a really heavy toll on both teams.
10:28It partly might be down to the pitches you've played on this summer, which is a chance.
10:32But do you think the schedules are too tightly packed now?
10:36I guess maybe you could look back over a five-game series.
10:40Could the gaps in between games be, I don't know, done a little bit better?
10:46Maybe I think, you know, if you had two eight-day and nine-day gaps between tests and then two three-day turnarounds,
10:52maybe you could look at, I don't know, making it four, five for every game maybe, just so there's that consistency.
10:59But yeah, it has been tough for both teams. You know, there's been a lot of overs bowled by bowlers,
11:06a lot of time spent out on the field. But yeah, that's part of the game.
11:11But yeah, maybe you could look at going, do we need to have an eight-day break, nine-day break,
11:16but then also a three-day break. It could be four or five between every game.
11:21And then you're still going to have the same amount of days throughout the series.
11:25I'm going to quickly ask about Liam Dawson missing out.
11:27Was it a call between him and Jacob and you've gone for the batting,
11:30or was there always a chance he might be squeezed out here?
11:35Look, we had to obviously think about me not being able to, if I was to play,
11:41it would just obviously be as a batter. And then the way in which the Oval generally plays here
11:47is that your seamers are the ones who take your wickets. So yeah, we, you know, obviously
11:53being a force change, having Beth coming at six, we still felt that we wanted to have the four seamers
11:58because we felt that here that's giving yourself the best chance of winning the game before,
12:04obviously the ball's been bold. And the way that it's sort of played here throughout the year anyway
12:09in the County Championship, you know, they've looked very similar to this and played like that.
12:14So yeah, there's a little bit of intel going into that, but we obviously wanted to give ourselves four seamers.
12:20Chris, go ahead, please.
12:22Hi Ben, just to clarify the timeline on this, are you and the medical team confident that you'll be completely
12:29over this by the time you guys land in Australia in early November?
12:32Yeah.
12:33And what, what, what is the timeframe they've given you to kind of rehab?
12:36Uh, six, seven weeks probably.
12:37Okay.
12:38Yeah.
12:39Thanks.
12:40Sun around at the back, please.
12:41Yeah.
12:42And we'll go Sydney.
12:43Just looking at the number of overs bowled by both the teams, would you expect a slightly
12:50helpful wicket for the bowlers, at least for the last test?
12:54I've been expecting it from day one, to be honest.
12:59Um, but I'm not going to lie.
13:01This one looks like to have a lot more live grass on the wicket than the other wickets
13:06we've been on.
13:07So yeah, I wouldn't be surprised this week in particular that there is a little bit more
13:11assistance there for the seamers.
13:13Sydney and then one more here, please.
13:14Go ahead, Sydney.
13:15Ben, you were just talking about the fight test series and scheduling.
13:19Now you've been part of a lot of fight test series.
13:22Can you just tell us how much of a toll does it take on a player and a captain in terms
13:26of physical, mental and emotional?
13:29Big, big toll.
13:31It's, um, yeah, a lot physically, um, it's very tough.
13:36Um, you know, a lot of, yeah, especially out in the field, you know, it's bowling over,
13:43standing up there anyway, it's, it is tiring.
13:46Um, but then obviously the mental side of it as well, just as tiring.
13:50Um, this series in particular, I think, has it gone to the last session of five?
13:55I don't even know.
13:56Yeah.
13:57If that's even ever happened before in England, I wouldn't know.
14:00But yeah, it's been tough, gruelling series, but it's class to play.
14:05Um, it's a real test of characters, test of, um, physicality, all that kind of stuff.
14:11And, um, I think that the way which both teams have, you know, fronted up every single day
14:18and every single session and, um, given everything for, you know, their countries as, as testament
14:23to how much this format means to, um, England and India and every other team in the world.
14:29Um, because yeah, the, the easy option would be to just, I don't know, not turn off and give up.
14:36But yeah, as you've seen, every team, both teams have turned up every single day and just given
14:41absolutely everything and left, um, everything out on the field.
14:46Um, so far, I don't see it being any different this week.
14:48Rev Sports last one, go ahead.
14:51Ben, any instructions given to you that you can watch the wicket from 2.5 metres away?
14:56Any what, sorry?
14:57Any instructions were given to you that you can watch the wicket from 2.5 metres away?
15:02This is about yesterday.
15:04Yes.
15:05Yes.
15:06I wasn't, I, obviously, it's hard not to see that stuff, but I wasn't here.
15:09I don't know what's happened.
15:11Um.
15:12It was same drill for you guys, like any other venue?
15:16I don't know what's happened.
15:18No, just, just for you guys.
15:23Thanks Ben.
15:24Thanks Ben.
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