England are nursing fears over Ben Stokes’ fitness to bowl in the remainder of the third Test after their captain did not turn to himself to stifle Australia’s day-three march towards an Ashes-sealing victory in Adelaide.

Having bowled 19 overs in Australia’s first innings – all on day one – Stokes would have usually featured in the attack. However, he didn’t bowl himself at any point during the host’s 66 overs, despite boasting England’s best average (25.87), with eight dismissals – including a five-wicket haul in his opening spell of the series in Perth. He also has the second-best economy rate (4.05) after Jofra Archer.

Trailing by 85 runs at the start of Australia’s second innings, England made breakthroughs at 53 for 2 and then 149 for 4. But Travis Head’s second century of the series, supplemented by a half-century from first-innings centurion Alex Carey, blitzed Australia to an overnight lead of 356.

Stokes marshaled his troops for all but three overs of the third innings – between the ends of the 48th and 51st – after bumping the back of his head while fielding. He had begun the day with bat in hand, resuming on 45 and extending it to 83 before becoming the penultimate batter to fall in England’s first innings of 286.

The knock itself lasted more than five hours (312 minutes), with the first 151 of the 198 deliveries he faced coming on Thursday (day two), when temperatures were just above 41 degrees centigrade. By the end of day two, he was taking regular breaks to stretch out several ailments, including cramp. He even struggled to consume the requisite amount of carbohydrate drinks to replenish his energy reserves because he was too ill.

Stokes looked sore as he walked across Adelaide Oval after stumps on Friday, clearly nursing the toll of three days of hard graft. England assistant coach Jeetan Patel admitted he was not entirely sure why Stokes was unable to bowl, believing it may just be down to tiredness given his exertions so far.

“From what I understand, he’s pretty fit to bowl,” said Patel. “I think he’s just pretty knackered and he’s taken a lot out of himself to get through this point in the game.

“The disappointment of the way he got out this morning… well not the way, it was a pretty good delivery… but all the work he had done to get to the position where he was, where we could press on again and push that partnership further… that took a lot out of him as well and then you get that early wicket and the energies are up and all of a sudden it’s not quite where you think it’s going.

“From what we heard he was (fit). He didn’t bowl, but that’s probably a different discussion with him. I don’t actually know. My sense is he’s just pretty knackered. We all know he doesn’t do anything at 80%. Maybe he thought he was a risk, so he didn’t bowl.”

Even with question marks over Stokes’ capacity to fight more than he already has, Patel has urged England to produce something magical. Pushed into the final corner, with a mooted target expected to be in world record territory, he believes the team have worn too many blows from Australia over the nine days of play, the first six being enough for the hosts to take a commanding 2-0 lead.

“I’m very optimistic of where we could take it,” said Patel. “I still believe there’s an opportunity for us. It won’t be easy, we’re going to need something magical. I think it’s about time we saw something magical from us, you know?

“Three games in, we’ve thrown some but taken a lot and I think it’s about time, now we’re backed into a corner, to throw some haymakers back.

“When I go back in that changing room, that’s certainly the way I’ll be looking at it. I’m sure there’ll still be some guys having a little laugh about themselves and it’s what this game is about. It tests you down here, doesn’t it, and asks you some really hard questions. Personally, I think we’ve just got to try and find a way to stand up and answer them.”

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