Ben Stokes' handshake row is a distraction – this England decision will decide India series

Independent

5 days ago

Even the conversation, Ben Stokes said, was 'ridiculous'. Injury substitutes, he argued, should not be a part of cricket. About 20 minutes earlier, the India coach Gautam Gambhir had provided the opposite answer.
'Imagine if you have to play with 10 men against 11, how unfortunate that would be?' he said after Rishabh Pant broke his foot. 'You stick me in an MRI scan and you'd get someone else in right away,' countered Stokes, with his ample experience of playing through the pain barrier.
Pant will not play when these sides, after the briefest of pauses, reconvene at The Oval on Thursday. Stokes, following the furore surrounding his offer to shake hands before Washington Sundar and Ravindra Jadeja reached centuries, is left pondering a different kind of substitutes, whether due to injury or fear of it, ineffectiveness or exhaustion, but at the start, not mid-match.
England responded to the draw at Old Trafford by adding Jamie Overton to the squad, just as Stokes had said that they would veer from their usual policy of naming the team two days early. In different ways, there are reasons to wonder if any of their fast bowlers can fulfil the same role in the fifth Test.
Stokes will play, almost regardless of medical advice. He didn't bowl on Saturday, was troubled by his bicep on Sunday and yet still produced the day's most menacing spell. Jasprit Bumrah is the world's top-ranked bowler but Stokes is the series' leading wicket-taker.
Given the astonishing exploits, and longevity, of James Anderson and Stuart Broad, the threat Jofra Archer and Mark Wood posed at their best and Chris Woakes' record at home, it is a moot point if Stokes has ever been definitively England's best bowler. Now, at 34 and 115 Tests into his career, he is.
But that reflects, too, on the rest of the attack. There is a case of changing each of the seamers. All four Tests have gone deep into the fifth day. The compressed nature of this series means these teams have played for 20 days since 20 June, with five more to come. It is a test of powers of resilience, but also strength in depth. Whether or not England have psychological scars from 143 overs in the field at Old Trafford, and only two wickets in the last 142 of them, they could be fatigued.
Woakes and Brydon Carse have played all four Tests. Archer has played the last two, after just one first-class game since May 2021. It would seem a risk to then play him in three successive matches. It would also bring the question of whether they come with diminishing returns after five wickets at Lord's and four more expensive ones at Old Trafford.
For Woakes, the series has brought 10 wickets at 52; for Carse, nine at 60. The 36-year-old may have bowled better than the figures suggested, particularly in the last two Tests, but not dramatically better. Carse went wicketless at Old Trafford: banging the ball in too short, getting too little movement, his average for the series against left-handers is over 200. Which, unless Usman Khawaja, Travis Head and Alex Carey suddenly and inexplicably start batting right-handed, could be an impediment in the Ashes.
So England's chances of recording their most prestigious series win under Stokes' captaincy could come down to a second-string bowling unit. Liam Dawson, the only spinner in the squad, was summoned only because Shoaib Bashir was injured; the 35-year-old was more economical than the off-spinner probably would have been at Old Trafford, but arguably produced fewer potentially wicket-taking deliveries. Dawson's 47-over marathon in India's second innings was Jack Leach-esque: lending control but lacking the magic ball.
Overton's last outing was inauspicious, with figures of 14-0-81-0 for Surrey at Scarborough. Gus Atkinson was omitted by his county then, sent to play Second XI cricket, where he took 2-64 and 1-29 against their Somerset counterparts. He has an outstanding Test record but has barely played this summer, though his total of six County Championship wickets is still four more than Overton's tally. Josh Tongue showed he could mop up the tail at Headingley but is short of top-order victims. They could comprise the fast bowlers, unless England press the weary into action again.
And if India, who face a decision of their own about Bumrah, who has played the three Tests that was supposed to be his limit for the summer, win at The Oval; when their next matches are against West Indies in October, who they should be able to beat without him. And they, unlike England, definitely do need to take 20 wickets at The Oval. They need to win; though a lesson of the Bazball era is that someone will, with draws so rare.
For both teams, there is a legacy at stake. For Shubman Gill and his new-look team, it could be the start of something; for Stokes, India and then an Ashes away provide the chance for a defining achievement.
The first could depend on whether it is better to trust a tiring attack that, in two cases, has found wickets elusive or back-ups, in two cases, with little first-class cricket of late. It could be a decision with considerable repercussions.
It all gives England bigger problems than a row than Stokes' offer to shake hands earlier than India were willing to. Sundar and Jadeja wanted to reach the centuries their efforts merited, even if it involved doing so against Harry Brook's odd attempts at off-spin. Its significance lay largely in revealing England's frustration at their rearguard action. But they will be rather more frustrated if a series victory slips through their grasp.