Stokes pulled up delivering the second ball of his 13th over in New Zealand’s second innings – and his 37th of the match, his biggest workload in a single match in two and a half years.
Despite suffering a flogging from the home batters on this rain-delayed third day and heading for what looks an inevitable defeat, it looked as though Stokes and his players could head home happy after winning England’s first Test series in this country for 16 years.
England have found an ideal Ashes bowler. Too bad he can't play for them
Read MoreThe grimace on Stokes’ face as he limped off clutching his left hamstring in agony told you as much. When the results of the scan he had in Hamilton on Monday evening come back they are likely to confirm England’s worst fears.
Even then he has subsequently admitted he pushed himself too hard to get back that quickly. “I actually did physically ruin myself,” he said before the first Test of this series in Christchurch.
Stokes has not played limited-overs cricket for England since last year’s 50-over World Cup in India. Yet it would not have been a surprise to see him brought back in the new year under the new all-format leadership of coach and co-Bazball conspirator Brendon McCullum.
Stokes took on a huge workload in Hamilton (Photo: AFP)And pulled up in pain, clutching his hamstring on day three (Photo: AP)The look on his face said it all (Photo: AP)
England’s next Test, against Zimbabwe in May, is five months away. But even though Stokes, whose chronic injury to his left knee had previously affected his bowling before surgery in late 2023, will be back for that, how much can he now trust his body to get through lung-busting spells as he has done here again in New Zealand?
The 23 overs he got through on day one in Hamilton were the most he had ever bowled on a single day during his 11-year Test career.
Paul Collingwood earlier this week praised the way he has taken to that workload, saying: “It’s great he’s got his body back into a place that he can bowl as many overs as he feels he needs to. It’s a huge positive for us moving forward.”
England are learning a vital Ashes lesson in third New Zealand Test
Read MoreAs footballer Michael Owen has admitted, once you tear a hamstring you are never the same player again because of the psychological impact and the physical risk that your worst fears will come true. “I was petrified of running into a channel,” the former England striker said in 2018. “I just knew I was going to tear a muscle. The worst thing about it is your instinct is to do what you have done all your life but you start thinking: ‘Oh no, don’t.’”
England cannot risk losing him as a captain or a batter. But if he is unable to be a proper all-rounder, it changes the whole balance of this team. Without him, they probably have to pick an extra bowler – bad news for someone like Ollie Pope, his vice-captain who stood in for him again on the field in Hamilton, and possibly Joe Root, who might be asked to bat at the No3 position he so dislikes. It’s a debate for another day but this complicates things.
It’s an attitude that means he can pull off miracles such as the one that won England an epic Ashes Test at Headingley in 2019.
Whether he will be the same again after this remains to be seen.
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