THIS TEST SHOULD BE GOING ON WITHOUT STOKES
They were never going to leave him out. Not once they had rushed Ben Stokes back with unseemly haste into the squad for a Test that could see england wrap up this series with two to play. But it does not make it right.
Once it was left, in effect, to cricket people to decide whether Stokes should walk out at Trent Bridge today to face India they were certain to pick the man who could yet go on to become one of the all-time great all-rounders.
yet it remains a huge shame that nobody saw the bigger picture. Nobody in the england set-up was able to take a step back and realise that the first Test in this country to start on a Saturday since 1955 should have gone on without him.
england captain Joe Root said yesterday the decision to include Stokes was taken ‘above our heads’ but there was insufficient time between the verdict at Bristol Crown Court and confirmation of Stokes’s presence here for proper consultation.
When asked who had made the call — which came just one hour and 42 minutes after Stokes was found not guilty of affray — coach Trevor Bayliss name- checked himself, Root, ed Smith, Andy Flower and ‘the board’.
There was no mention of those who should have set an example in eCB chairman Colin Graves and chief executive Tom harrison. Nor of the lawyers hovering in the background.
So the circus will roll into Nottingham after Sam Curran yesterday became the unluckiest england player in living memory to be dropped from a Test side and Stokes will stride back in as if he had done nothing wrong.
‘Ben has been made available and has been a fine performer for a long period,’ insisted Root. ‘you don’t want to leave out someone like Ben. he offers so much on and off the field.’
Thereality is that england would be firm favourites to win at one of their happiest hunting grounds with or without Stokes. Instead, they may have cranked up the pressure on themselves a notch by not doing the right thing.
This third Test should have been about england’s unexpected superiority so far, particularly at Lord’s, and the pressure that is now on India captain Virat Kohli to avoid the humiliation that a 5-0 thrashing would represent for the best team in the world.
And it should still be about the remarkable Jimmy Anderson and his quest to take the remaining 11 wickets that would see him overtake Glenn McGrath to become the most prolific seam bowler in Test history.
So effective is Anderson at swing-friendly Trent Bridge that you would not rule out the chance that he will at least draw level with McGrath on 563 Test victims with a 10-wicket haul over the next five days.
If that happens england will almost certainly have won a third successive victory over India, and fourth in all. The unlucky Curran impressed in all three of those wins but will not feature today.
In an effort to avoid yet another defeat, India look set to make at least two changes.
Fit-again Jasprit Bumrah will come in for Kuldeep yadav and the exciting Rishabh Pant given his debut in place of Dinesh Karthik.
There could be a rapid return too at the top of the order for Shikhar Dhawan at the expense of either Murali Vijay or KL Rahul but the biggest news for India is that Kohli declared himself fit after hurting his back at Lord’s.
how India will need him with the pitch looking almost as green yesterday as it did here three years ago when Australia were bowled out for 60, thanks to one of the all-time great spells of eight for 15 by Stuart Broad.
What can easily be overlooked is that a certain Ben Stokes took six for 36 in the second innings of that game at a time when his career was still climbing towards the rarefied levels reached by only a select few.
Things have changed since then. Stokes has rarely been at his best since he was again rushed back prematurely for england’s tour of New Zealand earlier this year with the prospect of a court case hanging over him.
england have made a huge show of support to pick him here, even if, certainly in the case of eCB management, it has more to do with concerns over restraint of trade than giving their man a fresh start with a clean state.
The ‘real’ Stokes certainly stood up on the last morning of the first Test at edgbaston when he dismissed Kohli and then India’s last man in hardik Pandya to seal a thrilling win. That is what he has to concentrate on doing now. And make sure he never again gets into any trouble off the pitch.