England has admitted Ben Stokes too 'knackered' to bowl. But he's the only magic man that can save The Ashes

ADELAIDE: Nothing has summed up England's performances more this Test than the hat-trick of assistant coaches appearing at the press conferences after all three days of play at the Adelaide Oval.

After day three it was Jeetan Patel's turn and what came was intriguing comments around the health of Ben Stokes and Will Jacks' bowling.

Stokes did not bowl on day three as Australia's lead grew and grew.

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As he looked around at his team, the England skipper must've wondered who will do what he does?

Who will grab the game by the scruff of the neck and take control?

The answer was seemingly nobody.

With the series on the line, Stokes was faced with the very real prospect that he may have to do it all himself.

But he didn't.

Patel said Stokes was "pretty knackered" after finishing on 83 earlier in the day.

There's no doubt Stokes' workload has been the biggest out of all his troops.

As the day drew on, more and more of the media asked England's officials what was happening. The response was there's been nothing to report.

Stokes went off at one stage but reappeared before Travis Head reached his century.

Was he mentally exhausted or suffering from another physical ailment? The answer could be somewhere in the middle.

"From what I understand, he's pretty fit to bowl," Patel said. "I think he's just pretty knackered and he's taken a lot out of himself to get to this point of the game … and might be a bit tired and just needs a bit of time to himself right now.

"... We all know he doesn't do anything at 80 per cent. Maybe he thought he was a risk, so he didn't bowl."

England's day was a shocker. Early on Marnus Labuschagne was given not out caught behind.

Stokes looked at his men for advice, and it went down to the buzzer. But it wasn't before he agitated towards his teammates, asking for a definitive answer.

Throughout the day Fox Cricket continually went to the stump mic to hear what was happening close to the action. There was barely any chat. England, through the sound of silence, were defeated.

Then came two deliveries that summed it all up.

In his fifth over, Jofra Archer was coming back for a second spell.

He sent one down legside which trickled to the boundary for four leg byes. His second delivery was so far outside off stump it was begging to be called a wide.

Then there was the figures of Will Jacks. The all-rounder clearly wasn't up to being the frontline spinner. He finished with 1-107 off 14 overs.

"I don't think he's has bowled poorly, if anything he's been a touch short or a touch straight at times. His pace has been a little bit down compared to [Nathan] Lyon but I'm not comparing him to Lyon, I'm comparing him to Will Jacks," Patel said.

"They've played him very well, they've used the crease, they've got deep and gone down at him, they've used the offside and legside and looked to score and looked to put him under pressure which is probably what you would do against a spinner of Jacksy's nature, where it's not his frontline skill. He's probably 50-50.

"But we all know why he was picked and it was because of the first two games and we felt we did need that extra batting cover."

Patel then said he believes Shoaib Bashir is England's No.1 spinner before admitting the quality of spin bowling just isn't there.

"Bash is bowling fine, he's where he's supposed to be in terms of this series," he said.

"Would we have liked Graeme Swann out there? Probably. But we don't have him, that's just the reality of where we're at and what we need for this game."

Among the Patel press conference, was a 'magical' buzz word that's a headline writers dream. It perfectly summised exactly what England will need to pull off what would be dubbed 'the miracle of Adelaide'.

"We're going to need something magical but I think it's about time we saw something magical from us. Three games in, we've thrown some but taken a lot but I think it's about time to throw some haymakers."

The magic is Stokes. But does he have a final trick?