England left Adelaide on Friday night with more questions than answers about Ben Stokes’ ability to bowl, after their captain opted against using himself throughout Australia’s second-innings surge towards what already looks a match-defining lead.
Stokes sent down 19 overs on day one but – despite possessing England’s best bowling average of the series (25.87) and four first-innings wickets – never loosened the shoulders in Australia’s 66-over reply. His absence coincided with the hosts converting an 85-run advantage into a daunting 356 by stumps, Travis Head cracking a second hundred of the series and Alex Carey adding a rapid half-century.
Stokes had earlier ground out an 83 that kept England afloat at 286, an innings that spanned more than five hours and included long spells the previous evening when temperatures nudged 41°C. By close of play on Thursday he was stretching between overs and struggling to stomach the energy drinks being thrust at him. On Friday evening he trudged off gingerly, rubbing his back and neck.
Assistant coach Jeetan Patel could shed only partial light. “From what I understand, he’s pretty fit to bowl,” said Patel. “I think he’s just pretty knackered and he’s taken a lot out of himself to get through this point in the game.”
Patel accepted the effort required by Stokes’ knock had clearly emptied the tank. “The disappointment of the way he got out this morning… well not the way, it was a pretty good delivery… but all the work he had done to get to the position where he was, where we could press on again and push that partnership further… that took a lot out of him as well and then you get that early wicket and the energies are up and all of a sudden it’s not quite where you think it’s going.”
Pressed on whether the captain was in fact carrying an injury, Patel repeated: “From what we heard he was (fit). He didn’t bowl, but that’s probably a different discussion with him. I don’t actually know. My sense is he’s just pretty knackered. We all know he doesn’t do anything at 80%. Maybe he thought he was a risk, so he didn’t bowl.”
For England, the timing is difficult. With Australia already 2–0 up, Pat Cummins’ side can clinch the Ashes here, and Stokes’ refusal to chime in removed one of England’s few genuine wicket-taking threats on a surface beginning to show variable bounce. Head, fluent from ball one, punished anything remotely loose; Carey, fresh from a first-innings century, picked off the seamers square of the wicket and swept the spinners into the gaps.
England still found occasional joy. Josh Tongue drew a thin edge from Marnus Labuschagne before tea; Jimmy Anderson, miserly at one end, trapped Steve Smith lbw for 32. Yet each breakthrough exposed the lack of a fourth seamer willing to pound the middle overs, a role Stokes so often shoulders.
The skipper did miss three overs in the field after bumping the back of his head while chasing a ball to the rope, though he returned quickly and marshalled his bowlers with typical urgency. Visibly, he never warmed up to bowl – no loosening of shoulders, no donning of the trademark sweat-banded wrist. Instead, Moeen Ali and Joe Root shared 21 overs of spin as temperatures dipped to something approaching humane.
Whether Stokes wakes on Saturday feeling able, or even compelled, to roll through a few overs could define how competitive England remain. A fourth-innings target beyond 450 is in the wind, and only once in Test history – in Perth 1978 – has anything greater than 417 been chased in Australia.
Patel, while pragmatic, sees no option but to dig deep. “We all know how Ben operates,” he said. “If he feels he can make a difference, he’ll do it. And if that means bowling tomorrow, great. If not, someone else has to stand up. We’ve copped a few blows in this series; we need to land some back.”
England’s dressing-room will reason that Stokes badly needs a night’s rest and a patch of cooler air. But Australia, unbeaten at Adelaide in Tests since 2016, can smell the urn. Cummins still has five fully fit bowlers to call upon and a newish ball waiting on the shelf.
In short, England’s hopes of pulling off something extraordinary now hinge on two things: the captain’s body and every batter playing the innings of their lives. Neither feels impossible; both appear improbable.
