Touch over 27 overs proved too cumbersome a workload in the Sydney sun and when Smith threw another of his deliveries off the pads, he picked up sharply, knowing the damage was serious. He bowled the ball to Bethell to complete the over, walked away, biting his shirt collar and facing a grueling inquisition.
Stokes’ leadership is perhaps the most complex subplot of the past eight weeks Down Under, defying easy conclusions. Outwardly, he was a model captain, exhorting his players on the loose and chastising them where necessary, as when Jofra Archer had the audacity to ask for a change of pitch in Adelaide despite bowling small and wide.
Ben Stokes lasted five balls on day four in Sydney.Credit: Getty Images
He also led by example, blocking determinedly in Brisbane in stark contrast to the top order’s habit of driving up. But in a strange sense, he also sowed some of the seeds of his party’s demise.
Take the slag served up in this fifth Test by Matthew Potts and Brydon Carse. It was their inaccuracy and inconsistency as they shipped 271 runs between them in 52 overs that meant Stokes had to keep charging even as his body screamed for mercy.
But whose fault was it that these two led England’s seam attack in the first place? Potts and Carse are Stokes’ boys, his mates at Durham. It is only short-sighted that Stokes continued to bowl the new ball to Carse, often all at sea on his line and length.
And as for the inclusion of Potts, who parachuted in from a relegated county side without a Test appearance to his name for a year, it smacks of loyalty that trumps any vestige of common sense.
Stokes is also struggling with the bat, and not just when he has a groin problem. He has two half-centuries in Australia, but also six single-figure scores, at an average of 18.4 and at a relatively snail’s pace of 36.5.
He played with relentless heart, his 15 wickets keeping England afloat in passages of the game where they threatened to sink completely, but the mental image of an all-powerful all-rounder, forever pulling his team out of the fire, is starting to wear thin.
It is highly unlikely that we will see Stokes play any active role on the final day with Bethell, the current poster boy, confirming that he is unable to bowl.
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The verdicts on his performances on this Ashes tour, a series that could define him, are thus already forming.
At face value, his attitude was beyond reproach, refusing to look dejected and showing only belated flashes of his old temper when Labuschagne spoke to him once too often.
However, many of his decisions have been questioned. Quite apart from the unbreakable bond with Cars, why did he leave his swimming in Sydney during the third day of roasting under special cover, in the full glare of the sun for hours on end, potentially depleting his energy reserves even further?
That was just one symptom of shotgun thinking. Another was his choice to bowl seven overs before the second new ball, unnecessarily risking exhaustion.
All too predictably he paid the price and the body held together by the duct tape eventually gave way. Exhausted by his own martyrdom and the shortcomings of others, Stokes reached breaking point and beyond.
Telegraph, London
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