Captain Stokes ruled out of final Test with shoulder injury as team made changes

IANS INDIA

London: Captain Ben Stokes has been ruled out of England’s fifth Test against India as the hosts have made four changes to the playing eleven for the game at The Oval which begins on Thursday. England go into the decisive game with a 2-1 lead in the five-match series. During the drawn fourth Test at Old Trafford Stokes was seen clutching his right shoulder frequently mainly because he had bowled the most number of Test overs than ever before. I am obviously disappointed. There is a bit of emotion that goes into this stuff when you find out what you have done. I came down here this morning to give myself every chance to play just as a batter.   #ENGvIND #BenStokes #StokesOut #EnglandCricket #TestCricket #TheOval

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00:00yeah obviously disappointed um to not be able to finish the series um yeah disappointed how serious

00:08is the injury um yeah i've got a decent tear of one of the muscles that i can't pronounce

00:15because i don't know how to say it um but yeah it was obviously took as long as we could to

00:22make that decision around that um obviously a bit of emotion going into this kind of stuff

00:29when you find out what you've done um i came down here this morning was you know to give myself

00:35every chance i've seen if you know just to play as a batter of bowling was ruled out as soon as we got

00:40the scan results um but yeah i think you need sort of that time chatting with the medical team baz

00:50and then almost just 20 minutes to myself out there in the morning just to

00:53really be clear around the decision that we made and yeah there wasn't any it's one of those where

01:01the um you know weighing up the risk reward and and the risk um was way too high for damaging this

01:10any further than it currently is um didn't want to put myself i wouldn't expect to put anyone else

01:16any other my players at risk with it's an injury like this so um look start rehabbing now and

01:24um obviously focus on what we got coming up in the winter so yeah obviously very disappointed but

01:30almost needed a bit more time than normally would give to these kind of things to make a decision and

01:35um helps that we've got a really good strong squad to be able to select from to to put a team out there

01:39that we think can get us a win this week how long do you think we'll be out um oh once this series

01:44was done i was feet up anyway so um yeah it doesn't doesn't really make too much difference to what

01:51i've got from the end of the series up until the winter anyway and looking at the team without you

01:56in it and that's a difficult position you're here you're a huge loss in terms of the balance of the

02:01attack how do you assess the side you do have now now we've still able to field at 11 um that's gonna

02:09give us a very good chance of you know winning this game and winning the series um you know that's

02:14the benefit of having a very strong squad and um you know some pretty bloody good cricketers to be

02:19able to choose from when we find ourselves in a situation like this um so look let's put all

02:26the concentration on t11 that we've got out there this week um and we're very confident that we've got

02:31the ability to to be able to win this game and hopefully win the series thank you bethel comes in

02:37bats down at six there's been a lot of talk about him a lot of hype about him how do you think you'll

02:42deal with that yeah pretty good i think there was a lot more hype and a lot more um pressure on the

02:48shoulders in new zealand when he got given that chance about a three and he handled that pretty well

02:52um i think being um the type of player that he is where he you know plays all three formats um probably

03:01allows him to be a bit more versatile with where he bats in the order you know he batted at three

03:06in new zealand did very well um and yeah gets a sliding at six and um so look i'm very confident

03:13visibility he's a quality player uh i think we all know that so um yeah look we weren't going to

03:19change change the batting order at all it was just quite an easy slot in for him to come in six

03:25and just looking back to how it finished in old trafford it's been a bit of a needle throughout

03:28the series any regrets when you do it differently looking back uh no regrets but i think it's one of

03:35those where you're when you've not been there in the field for 250 overs um you do have a bit more

03:46of an understanding towards you know both sides um you know two lads janeja and washington played

03:53incredibly well up until that point so you sort of understand as to why um they wanted to stay out

03:58there and get the hundreds um but again like i said at the end of the game fair enough um but i'm not

04:06going to bowl any more bowlers in a situation there where um we can't win the game and expose any of

04:14those guys to injuries so it's just we're over it i think india are over that whole thing just

04:20let's just try our best not to focus too much on a 20-minute period of cricket um yeah when it's

04:28been such a good series so far Friday will be a date for Thorpe in memory of gremble the man who

04:32influenced you quite a deal i know just you sum up how important that will be to your Friday i know you

04:39might be out there um yeah Thorpe's been a very influential character as a player and as a coach

04:51um in english cricket um you know a few of us in that dressing room now spent a lot of time around

04:57him when we were younger coming through the ranks um as you know and then as we got into the into the

05:03main team you know Thorpe spent a lot of years around us um so yeah it's going to be a special day

05:10for you know all english fans um special day for um his family to be able to see um how much he meant

05:21to english cricket and how much he means to you know the current england dressing room um so yeah

05:28it's obviously will be an emotional day i think for a lot of people but also um a day where yeah

05:36one of the greats of the game and greats of english game can be appreciated we'll go joe rory and then

05:44will thank you you worked so hard to get in a position to play such a big role in this series

05:49you know all around the world you know everything you've been at the center of people have loved

05:55watching that also people have some perhaps been saying look ben would you take it easy do you think

06:01there's anything more you could have actually done to manage your workload in that sense over the course

06:05of course no not at all um um when i'm out in the field i play to win um i give absolutely everything

06:17that i possibly can if i feel um like there's a moment in a game where i need to put everything

06:27that i'm feeling aside i'll do that because it's how much this team means to me it's how much pain for

06:31england means to me and there's how much winning means to me um but there's absolutely nothing that

06:36i could have done before you know being a professional sportsman injuries as part of this game

06:41and can't do anything anything about them hey you are such a big figure in the team everyone knows

06:50it how do you expect this test match in terms of your influence on the team then even though you're

06:55not there on the field we've got some incredible leaders out in that 11 still you know um i know

07:02i'm a captain but i seek um you know advice um from quite a few people who've got some fantastic

07:09cricket brains out there um and you know we've got a team of 11 match winners um one person doesn't win

07:17you a game um and yeah just because i'm not playing or i'm playing doesn't mean that we're going to

07:24win or lose um we've had people put in some pretty special individual performances throughout this game

07:30and this is another opportunity for 11 different people to be able to put their hand up and hopefully

07:35win a game for england as well rory go ahead then you mentioned thinking about the winter ahead now like

07:41when you got the information from the medical team did you ask the question did you say like

07:47how does this affect the ashes uh not like that no um it was more of a what's the risk here what's

07:59the worst possible thing with where this current injury is at to where it could head to and

08:05yeah hearing where it could head to was not something that um yeah it was worth taking the

08:11risk of if you played this week it was potentially pretty bleak uh oh i could have played this week

08:17and nothing happened but i also could have played this week something worse happened so um yeah as again

08:21it's risk reward i'll always try and push myself as much as i possibly can so um yeah for me to say it's

08:28not right decision probably um understand where it's at

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