India, July 30 -- England captain Ben Stokes has been ruled out of the fifth and final Test match of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy series against India, owing to a right shoulder injury. Ollie Pope will step in as the skipper in The Oval Test, which will get underway on Thursday.

This is a massive blow for England as the in-form star was the Player of the Match in both the third and fourth Tests for his all-around performance. So far, he scored 304 runs in the four Tests, comprising a century in Manchester, and picked up 17 wickets, the most by any bowler in the contest, at 25.24, with one five-wicket haul.

During the fourth Test, Stokes was forced to bowl lengthy spells after India batted for 143 overs across five sessions to pull off ...