Back-to-back heavy defeats to India have forced England captain Ben Stokes to consider an early return to bowling, with head coach Brendon McCullum admitting that while it is a good sign, they don't want the all-rounder to put undue pressure on himself . Stokes, who is still recovering from knee surgery, has not bowled since the second Ashes Test in June last year. “Well, it's good that he actually gets into a state where he thinks he could bowl,” McCullum told ESPNCricinfo on Monday.
“But Ben is smart; he's also very smart. He won't bowl unless he thinks he's legitimately capable of bowling. The problem would be if he gets into a spell and then can't get out of the spell. So we'll see what unfolds.
'If he gets that piece between his teeth, let's see where the danger lies there and try to pull him away from it. But it's a good sign,” McCullum added.
Ahead of the Rajkot Test, Stokes had said that he “pinky promised” to his physiotherapist that he will not bowl in the ongoing series.
But when asked if he will reprise his all-rounder's role after the 434-run defeat in the third Test on Sunday, Stokes said: “I'm not saying yes, I'm not saying no”.
“Being me, I'm always very optimistic about most things. That will be a more detailed conversation with the medical team about the workload I've done to present myself as not a huge risk.” In fact, during the Rajkot Test, Stokes had trained at 100 percent intensity and admitted he was feeling pretty good.
“I managed to bowl 100 per cent on one of the warm-up days here which made me feel quite good. I felt I could have bowled in the game but that would have been stupid.” After winning the series opener by 28 runs, England fell to a 106-run defeat followed by one of their worst defeats in Rajkot to go 2-1 down in the series with matches remaining in Ranchi and Dharamsala.
The England team would benefit immensely if the speedy all-rounder returns to bowling. The visitors opted to field just one seam in the first two tests. They dropped Shoaib Bashir and picked both James Anderson and Mark Wood in the third game.
England's 'Bazball' approach also backfired big time in the third Test, which they lost by a whopping 434 runs, their biggest defeat in terms of runs since 1934.
But McCullum said while the defeat certainly hurts the visitors, they will continue their attacking 'Bazball' approach for the remainder of the five-match series.
McCullum said he has “no regrets” about their approach.
“We will turn the page and put money back into play in an attempt to put pressure on India,” McCullum told BBC Sport.
“Hopefully in seven or eight days we'll be talking about how exciting it is to be heading towards a decider.”
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