Stokes, Archer out as England make four changes
"Yeah, obviously disappointed to not be able to finish the series," was the English skipper's response in the pre-match day press conference on Wednesday. Speaking of the injury, he said, "Yeah, I've got a decent tear in one of the muscles that I can't pronounce because I don't know how to say it. It took as long as we could to make that decision around that. Obviously, a bit of emotion going into this kind of stuff when you find out what you've done."
Stokes played a huge role for his team in this series. Currently he is leading wicket taker with 17 scalps and slammed a century, his first in more than two years, in the Manchester Test. His all-round show, especially at the Lord's and Manchester Tests, meant he was adjudged Player of the Match in both the contests.
Stokes, 34, in fact reached the Oval, the venue of the fifth Test, on Wednesday morning and contemplated his chance of playing as a specialist batter. He had a chat with the medical team and head coach Brendon McCullum before arriving at the final decision. "I came down here this morning to give myself every chance. Obviously, just to play as a batter, bowling was ruled out as soon as we got the scan results. But, yeah, I think you need that time chatting with the medical team, Baz, and then almost just 20 minutes to myself out there in the middle of the morning just to really be clear around the decision that we made," Stoked said.
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