'Pain Is Just An Emotion': England Skipper Ben Stokes Breaks Silence On His Workload And Fitness, Opens Up On His Prospect Of Playing The Oval Test

IND vs ENG: India denied England a famous Test and series victory in Manchester. Ben Stokes' England had fancied their chances and at one point in time, they might have felt that they have India on the backfoot, but fate had different ideas for them. The hosts of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy series, England are currently 2-1 up in the series and they'd feel that they missed an opportunity to take an unassailable lead of 3-1 in the Old Trafford Test.

Ben Stokes Addresses The Possibility Of Him Missing The Oval Test

It is hard to believe that Ben Stokes, despite being a batter and despite having leadership duties, has bowled more overs as compared to Jasprit Bumrah. Stokes so far is also the leading wicket-taker of the series. As compared to Jasprit Bumrah's 718 balls (119.4 overs), Stokes has bowled 840 balls (140.0 overs) and has taken 17 wickets so far in the series, 3 more than Jasprit Bumrah.

Stokes looked in a lot of discomfort while bowling on the fifth day of the Manchester Test. After the end of day four's play, England's Assistant Coach, Marcus Trescothick, said that Ben Stokes' body was stiff, but he was still good enough to get through the fifth day. Ben Stokes has now spoken up on his workload and has teased the fact that he might be playing the Oval Test.

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'Pain is just an emotion. So yeah, just one of those things. I do not want to eat my words, but the likelihood that I won't play the last Test is very unlikely', said the English skipper.

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Stokes Battles Pain To Lead England By Example

Despite all the niggles and the injury issues, Ben Stokes led the English team by example in the fourth Test match of the series and he was right on the money. Stokes claimed a fifer in the first innings and also ended up scoring his 14th Test ton, but these efforts weren't enough as India managed to pull off a miraculous heist in Manchester by drawing the game.

Just like the Lord's Test, Ben Stokes did try to impact the game with the ball in his hands, but his decision of bowling a long spell on the final day might backfire on him.