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Stokes has been progressing his bowling throughout this tour following an operation on his left knee at the end of November. Having started in Visakhapatnam ahead of the second Test, he has stepped up his intensity in Rajkot over the last week, and has been bowling back at his full pace.
“I’m not saying yes, I’m not saying no,” he answered, when asked about bowling in the fourth or fifth Test. “Me being me, I’m always very optimistic about most things. That will be a more detailed chat with the medical team about what workload I have done to pass me off as not being a massive risk.
“I managed to bowl at 100% in one of the warm-up days here which made me feel pretty good. I felt like I could have bowled in the game but that would have been stupid.”
Speaking on Monday, McCullum was buoyed by Stokes’ confidence. And while acknowledging Stokes would not do anything drastic, there was an appreciation that he, as head coach, had a duty to ensure his captain did not push himself unnecessarily.
“Well, it’s good that he’s actually getting into a state where he thinks he might bowl,” McCullum said. “But Ben is clever; he’s really clever as well. He won’t bowl unless he thinks he’s legitimately able to bowl. The problem would be if he starts getting into a spell and then he can’t get out of the spell. So we’ll see what unfolds.
“If he does get that bit between his teeth, then let’s see where the danger lies there and try and pull him away from it. But it’s a good sign.”
Anderson and Wood excelled in the first innings, with Wood taking four of the five dismissals between them. But they went wicketless during the second and looked drained during their collective 23 overs. It meant an inexperienced spin attack was exposed as India piled on the runs to give England an insurmountable target of 557.
“We’ve got two really good options on the sideline as well with Ollie Robinson and Gus Atkinson,” McCullum said. “So we’ve got a really good squad to pick from. We just need to work out when we get there what conditions we’re going to be confronted with and see the health of the army, and then make a decision on what we go with.
“Obviously we haven’t seen the conditions in Ranchi yet. I think it might spin. I guess it should spin but we’ll see when we get there. But, look, we’re really comfortable with what we’ve got and we’re certainly not going to add to the squad.
“We’ve got a group of players here who have played some outstanding cricket so far over the last three Test matches and whatever XI we decide to go with we will fully back. Hopefully we’ll be in a different situation to what we’re in now.”
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