England captain Ben Stokes ruled out of fifth Test against India through injury
England captain Ben Stokes will miss the deciding Test against India after being ruled out with a right shoulder injury.
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Stokes, whose deputy Ollie Pope will lead the team in his absence, has been battling a variety of fitness issues over the course of the Rothesay series and has finally been laid low with a problem that reared its head during last week’s draw at Old Trafford.
He will be replaced by Jacob Bethell, making his first Test appearance of the year in one of four changes to the England XI.
Liam Dawson has been dropped one match into his comeback, with England opting to go without a front-line spinner, while pace pair Jofra Archer and Brydon Carse are rested.
Three fresh quicks come into the side, with Surrey pair Gus Atkinson and Jamie Overton returning on home soil and Josh Tongue completing the line-up.
Stokes has sustained a grade-three muscle tear, meaning a significant lay-off awaits the all-rounder.
England do not play Test cricket again until the Ashes this winter, meaning the 34-year-old could face a tight recovery period to be fit for the hotly-anticipated series.
“I am obviously disappointing to not be able to finish the series,” an emotional Stokes said at a press conference.
“I have got a decent tear of one of the muscles I can’t pronounce, I don’t know how to say it, but we took as long as we could to make that decision around that.
“A bit of emotion goes into this kind of stuff when you find out what you have done – bowling was ruled out as soon as we got the scan results.
“But you need that time chatting with the medical team, Baz, then just 20 minutes to myself out there in the morning just to really be clear around the decision that we made.”