Ben Stokes gives England 'peek into their nightmare' in fifth India Test at The Oval

Five overs, in case you're wondering.

There have been five overs of actual cricket in the time we've had a row about shaking hands, a Royal Rumble on the Oval square and a national state of emergency over another part of Ben Stokes' anatomy.

If two of those incidents are little more than storms in teacups, one is anything but. Of all the possible combinations England could have fielded for the decisive final Test against India from Thursday, the absence of Stokes did not feature high on the list of probabilities.

The announcement of the team on Wednesday was a jaw-dropping moment, mainly for the stark reality of what a Stokesless England team looks like.

The stakes are high here – a first series win against India since 2018 and first in a five-Test series against anyone in the same timeframe are up for grabs – and will be even higher in England's following Test, in Perth in November.

If it is an unthinkable blow to lose their talisman for this game, it also leaves England peering into their worst nightmare: taking on Australia in Australia without Ben Stokes. Depending how that series goes, there is an outside chance he has played his last Test in this country.

Once again, Stokes has pushed himself beyond his limit. In 2021 it was surgery on a shattered finger, two years later an operation to sort out his left knee. There were two separate hamstring injuries in 2024, the latter requiring surgery. Now it is a grade-three muscle tear in a right shoulder he also injured playing in the Indian Premier League in 2017.

Stokes has been sensational in this series, player of the match in each of the past two Tests and probably the difference between two evenly matched teams.

The 17 wickets he has taken and 140 overs he has bowled are the most in a single series across his career. He has outbowled the great Jasprit Bumrah and regularly carried the England attack on his back.

The direct hit run out of Rishabh Pant in the third Test at Lord's changed the course of the match that ultimately gave England their 2-1 lead. His hundred at Old Trafford was a first in two years and made him only the fourth England man to register a five-wicket haul and century in the same Test.

But it has come at a cost, raising the question of how much is too much, even for a superman like Stokes.

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