England captain Ben Stokes has voiced his continued opposition to injury substitutes being brought into international cricket, despite Chris Woakes having to bat with a dislocated shoulder on day five at The Oval.
Stokes was speaking in the post-play press conference after his side were beaten in a dramatic finish to the final Test of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. Needing 35 runs on day five with four wickets in hand, Mohammed Siraj found Jamie Smith's edge with his third ball of the day, Dhruv Jurel duly taking the catch. Siraj saw the back of Jamie Overton in his next over, before Prasidh Krishna bowled Josh Tongue.
That left England with one wicket remaining, and the injured Woakes faced with the prospect of coming out to bat with a severely injured shoulder and 17 runs needed to win. Woakes suffered a suspected dislocation to his shoulder in the first innings of the match after diving in an attempt to save a boundary. He did not come out to bat in England's first innings and played no further role with the ball or in the field. However, he came out to bat with his left-arm in a sling to huge applause from the crowd. As it happened, Woakes did not face a ball, as Gus Atkinson ensured he stayed on strike to face every delivery, before he was bowled by a beauty from Mohammed Siraj.
International cricket does not allow for injury replacements once a game has started, except in cases of concussion. Calls for such a rule to be implemented to prevent players feeling obliged to play through pain, often worsening injuries, have been gaining momentum. They were made earlier in this series after Rishabh Pant batted through a broken foot during the fourth Test in Manchester. At the time, Stokes was opposed to such a rule change, saying: "There will be too many loopholes for teams to be able to go through. You pick your XI for a game, and injuries are a part of the game."
Stokes: If someone gets injured, tough s***
When asked by media if Woakes' injury had changed his opinion on injury substitutes, Stokes doubled down on his previous stance. "I don't see it [injury substitutes] being a thing," said Stokes. "Sorry about this, but if someone gets injured tough s***, deal with it. That's how we view it."
Stokes did not play in the fifth Test, having sustained an injury to his own shoulder during the match at Old Trafford which concluded three day prior to the start of the match at The Oval. Speaking on his own injury, he said had injury substitutions been an option, he may have risked his shoulder in an attempt to win the series.
"I could have gone into this game knowing I had a sore shoulder and knowing I'll give it a go," said Stokes. "Hopefully I'll come through but, if I don't, I know I've got someone else who can come in and replace me. You select an XI and it's actually tactical, so I feel like there is that room where you could actually manipulate it a bit [with injury substitutes].
"The injury that I did have ruled me out of this game, but maybe if we did have that option in a pretty big game in a series, I could have gone, 'nah this is worth it', if I do go down at least I've got someone else to come in. Part of that was that I can't risk doing this long term, but also if I do go down in this game then that completely ruins the whole make-up of the team. So I'm still heavily against it... My view has not changed."
Stokes' opinion on injury substitutes differs to that of India head coach, Gautam Gambhir, who said after the Manchester Test that he was 'all for' making the change.
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