England remain hopeful their captain and talisman, Ben Stokes, will shake off his bout of cramps and lead the charge with the ball on the final day of the Manchester Test. After a commanding century on the fourth morning at Old Trafford - complementing his first-innings five-for - Stokes did not bowl through England's 62 overs in the second innings. Meanwhile, India's KL Rahul and Shubman Gill wove a resilient 174-run partnership, pushing the contest into a fifth day.

"He's a bit stiff and sore," said Marcus Trescothick, England's assistant coach, when asked about Stokes' chances of bowling on Sunday. "He's had quite a big workload in the last few weeks, and then batting in the first innings, he was getting quite a bit of cramp. We are hoping that with another night's rest and a bit more physio work overnight, he'll be back and doing a bit tomorrow."

England, still heavy favourites in a Test they've dominated from the outset, found their attack flagging without the series' leading wicket-taker. Stokes first felt the cramps while batting on the third evening and retired hurt on 66, only to return later and reach a superb 141, breaking a two-year drought of Test hundreds. Along the way, he joined an elite trio - Gary Sobers and Jacques Kallis - by scoring 7,000 runs and taking 200 wickets in Tests.

When England resumed bowling in the second innings, Stokes was seen clutching his hamstring. Though Trescothick eased injury fears, the strain speaks to a punishing workload. After carefully managing his bowling across the first two Tests, Stokes delivered marathon spells of nine and ten overs on the final day at Lord's. Add another 24 overs in Manchester's first innings, and his tally for the series reaches 129 overs.

"It's just a build-up," Trescothick explained. "It's such a heavy workload, from where he's been to what he's doing. It's just trying to monitor it, and obviously the cramp that he was getting yesterday, you have that little bit of worry... We'll see what he's like tomorrow."

The former England opener acknowledged that if Stokes can't bowl, it would leave a major void given his influence. Yet he expressed confidence in the rest of the side to step up. "Well, of course, you know, you take anybody out of a four-man attack or five-man attack, it creates a hole. And when you're trying to push for victory on a pitch that is, you know, quite tricky and gets quite slow after the ball gets older. You know, let's not forget, he got five wickets in the first innings as well.