Injured captain Stokes ruled out of 5th Test, England make 4 changes

England captain Ben Stokes has been ruled out of the fifth and final test against India with a right shoulder injury.

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Ollie Pope, who bats at No. 3, will replace Stokes as captain for the test at the Oval in London, the England and Wales Cricket Board said on Wednesday.

Play begins Thursday, with India trailing 2-1 in the series and needing a win to draw.

Stokes said he expects to be sidelined for up to seven weeks, which should in no way impact his participation in this winter’s Ashes series in Australia. But he felt it was clearly too risky playing one more test against India.

“It is one of those of weighing up the risk-reward, and the risk was way too high for damaging this any further than it currently is,” he said. “I wouldn't expect to put any of my players at risk with an injury like this. Once this series is done, I was feet up anyway (so) it doesn’t really make too much difference to what I've got from the end of the series up until the winter.”

The first test against Australia is on Nov. 21 and England will be counting on Stokes to help wrestle back the urn from Australia, which has held it since 2018. England has not won the Ashes since 2015 and has not won the Ashes in Australia since 2011.