Will Ben Stokes bowl against India in the fourth test? Brendon McCullum’s clear answer. cricket news

Two consecutive big defeats against India have forced England captain Ben Stokes to consider an early return to bowling and head coach Brendon McCullum has admitted that while it is a good sign, he does not want the all-rounder Push yourself unnecessarily. Stokes, who is still recovering from knee surgery, has not bowled since the second Ashes Test in June last year. “Well, it’s good that he’s really getting to the point where he feels he can bowl,” McCullum was quoted as saying by ESPN Cricinfo on Monday.

“But Ben is clever; he’s really clever too. He won’t bowl until he feels he’s able to bowl legitimately. The problem will be that he’ll start to get into a spell and then he Won’t be able to break out of that spell. So we’ll see what comes out.

“If he’s got it between his teeth, let’s see where the danger is and try to pull him away from it. But that’s a good sign,” McCullum said.

Before the Rajkot Test, Stokes had said that he had “pinky promised” his physiotherapist that he would not bowl in the current series.

But when asked whether he would resume his all-round role after Sunday’s 434-run defeat in the third Test, Stokes said, “I’m not saying yes, I’m not saying no.”

“That’s me, I’m always very optimistic about most things. It will be a more detailed conversation with the medical team about how much workload I have taken on so that I am not at any major risk.” During the Rajkot Test, Stokes had trained at 100 per cent intensity and admitted that he was feeling quite good.

“I managed to bowl 100 per cent on one of the practice days here, which made me feel pretty good. I thought I could have bowled in the game but that would have been stupid.” After winning the first match of the series by 28 runs, England lost by 106 runs, followed by one of their worst defeats in Rajkot and with matches remaining in Ranchi and Dharamshala, they lost the series 2–1. Lag behind.

If this pace all-rounder starts bowling again, the England team will benefit a lot. The visiting team opted to field only one seamer in the first two Tests. He removed Shoaib Bashir to pick out both James Anderson and Mark Wood in the third game.

England’s “baseball” approach also backfired in the third Test, which they lost by a huge margin of 434 runs, their biggest defeat in terms of runs since 1934.

But McCullum said while the defeat will certainly hurt the visitors, they will continue their aggressive ‘baseball’ approach in the remainder of the five-match series.

McCullum said he had “no regrets” about his approach.

“We will turn the page and try to put India under pressure again,” BBC Sport quoted McCullum as saying.

“Hopefully, in seven or eight days we’ll be talking about how exciting it is to go into the final.”

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)