Ben Stokes is willing to play through the pain, as the all-rounder has been struggling with soreness causing discomfort in his upper right arm in the final four days of the test match against India.
Asked about his shoulder injury, the 34-year-old replied, “It’s just that workload thing to be honest. Got through fair, a few amounts of overs. And just everything starts creeping up in you, but I’ll keep trying, keep going, and as I always say to all the bowlers, pain is only an emotion.”
Stokes has a long list of injuries; he recently got back to competitive cricket after spending five months on the sidelines as he recovered from a hamstring surgery. He has proven that he does not give up without a fight, with him taking 17 wickets across his 140 overs against India in this series, striking at an average of 25.20 while operating at a good pace and getting the ball to move significantly.
The England captain delivered an exceptional performance on the fourth test at Old Trafford, scoring a century and getting five wickets. Making him the third cricketer ever to score over 7000 Test runs and take 200 wickets.
With the series at 2-1, England will be aiming to seal and secure a win at home at the Oval. Stokes added “But I’ve got to be that upbeat person as well and we want to go out and put that last big performance in. We know there’s a lot of hard work to go into the end of the series.
“We set this game up really well, played the way we wanted to, but I give a lot of credit to the way India were able to play the way they did. It just wasn’t meant to be this week.”
England has outplayed India in Test cricket with over 50 wins, making them the dominant side in one of cricket’s most intense rivalries.
