Ben Stokes wasn’t supposed to bowl much in the first Test against West Indies.

This makes sense. He spoke before the game about how he struggled for fitness during the Ashes, having had his build-up interrupted by a badly broken finger and a mental-health break.

“I would have liked to have been in better physical shape when I was in Australia,” he said. “Obviously I had a long break which never helps. I couldn’t do much in three or four months so I was always behind.”

Really, he has struggled for fitness throughout his career, as many all-rounders do, and Stokes’ 2019/20 hot streak with the bat shows him to be a form player, making any spells on the sidelines even less desirable. Given England’s issues with the bat over the last 12 months and further back, Stokes’ importance to England is greatest as a batter. So it’s baffling that he ended the game having come within two overs of his third-heaviest workload in a Test match, even as the game petered out predictably to a draw.

By the end, his pace was down, and all hope of victory was gone: he was finally pulled from the attack when England needed six wickets in four overs on a pitch that has done bowlers no favours throughout. He looked exhausted. Joe Root could have shaken hands, or bowled his spinners, or himself, or bowled Chris Woakes and Craig Overton. But with the spectre of one win in 14 hanging over him, there was no compromise made. Jack Leach was still going when six wickets were needed from six balls, with a stalemate only agreed after the first dot ball of the final over. If anything, it’s a surprise Root stopped even then, with a stumping off a wide or a run out off a no-ball meaning there was still a mathematical chance. Now Root must hope his desperation for a win in the first Test doesn’t cost him in the second or third.

There are mitigating factors, most notably the injury to Mark Wood, whose involvement was limited to 17 first-innings overs by an elbow injury, which was still giving him acute pain while attempting a practice bowl on the morning of day five. But even before Wood’s exit, Stokes had bowled 14 overs, and he bowled more overs in the game than Chris Woakes, and only one fewer than Craig Overton, both front-line bowlers, and both seemingly fully fit, even if neither covered themselves in glory.

This is hardly a new problem for England and Joe Root either. Wood himself, perhaps England’s most injury-prone bowler, was thrown the ball over and over as Australia chased a declaration in the fourth Ashes Test. Steve Harmison wondered whether it might have contributed to his injury here.

“He bowled a lot [in Sydney] and I remember thinking that we’re going to need him further down the line,” said Harmison on talkSPORT. “He just kept bowling dead overs.”

Stokes is a skilful, whole-hearted, versatile bowler, and with England denying themselves the services of their two leading wicket-taker, the temptation to throw the ball to the rabble-rouser over and over again would have been even greater. His personality is such that he will have been desperate to bowl, to contribute in any way possible, especially having spoken of his feeling of having “let a lot of other people down” during the Ashes. But this is why it should have been resisted, and a stronger captain might have done so. England are already without two senior players, with the absences of Jos Buttler and Rory Burns also removing two of the more experienced heads in the dressing room. They can barely afford to lose another.