England will head for the second day of the third test against India with the Lord with renewed fears of their inspirational captain Ben Stokes. Vice-Capital Ollie Pope says that the team keeps their fingers crossed, that Captain Ben Stokes has not suffered a serious injury to the weakness after it seemed that he was fighting the third test against India in Lord’s.
Stokes, who closed undefeated at 39, looked uncomfortable at the end of the daily game, received treatment in the field and between goals. In particular, he rejected the second run in the finals that would bring Joe root to the century and his teammate stuck to 99 as as England reached 251 for 4. There are currently no plans for Stokes to undergo scanning, with England, which will re -assess its status on Friday morning.
“The fingers crossed to do something magic and return strongly,” the Pope said on the stump. “It is obvious that in the next four days we have a big test and two big ones. It is important to try to manage it and see how to pull out tomorrow.”
Stokes, 34, recently returned from Hamstring surgery and has a checkerboard history of injuries. Known by pushing his body on the border, he continued his bowling as the fourth English sailor this summer, but avoided the long, exhausting spells that once defined his game.
The Pope admitted that helping the captain to manage his work burden is part of his responsibility as a vice-capital.
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“For me, this is partly one of my roles to make sure it is not pushing in a ridiculous place with what he will deal with at the moment,” he added. “I am sure that physios and doctors will work with him to distribute the plan and help him push in the right direction.”
India is also worried about injury after Wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant left the field with a blow to the left index finger. Required treatment after being hit twice when he tried to collect supplies on the side of the foot from Jasprit Bumhrah. He could not be seen in the 34th place, with the replacement of Dhruv Jurel took over the stumps and took a sharp catch to release the Pope for 44.
Like Stokes, it is not expected that the hinge will have an X -ray overnight, with another evaluation scheduled before the second day.
The Pope had previously shared the 109 goal with Root, survived the chance of his first first ball. On the slow playground at Lord and against some disciplined Indian bowling, England was forced to slip an aggressive approach to the trademark.
The scoring rate of 3.02 runs for more than the slower after a total of 200 since Stokes became a captain in 2022.
“It’s not necessarily the way we are used to walking after the first shifts, but I think 251 for 4 is quite a good score in a minute,” Pope said. “It is obvious that we would like some runs, but the nature of the surface and the way the Indian Bowled attack was quite good.”
“It’s a day we take. We had to adapt the way we play, but hopefully it’s a score that we can really dig from tomorrow and do it north of 400, towards 500.”
– ends
Published:
Saurabh Kumar
Published on:
July 11, 2025
Tune
