- Tuesday, February 25, 2025
The England captain will be the 16th player to represent the Three Lions in 100 Test matches.
By: Shubham Ghosh
WHILE he will strive hard to ensure that his team takes a crucial 2-1 lead over England in the third Test in Rajkot starting Thursday (15), the game will also be a special one for England captain Ben Stokes since it will be his 100th in the format.
Going by his words, the ace all-rounder put less emphasis on the milestone of becoming the 16th England cricketer to appear in 100 Tests on the eve of the match and prioritised more on playing a top cricketing side such as India.
In a pre-match press conference, the dashing big-hitter said when asked about his thoughts on the game, “Milestones are what they are. I’ve always enjoyed playing against India because of the contest, the theatre it brings.”
The series is currently tied 1-1 after India bounced back in the second match in Visakhapatnam to beat the visitors by 106 runs after losing the first in Hyderabad by 28 runs.
Read: England have great chance to win India Test series in Kohli’s absence, feels Broad
Stokes said his mind is focused on decoding the conditions and having a solid strategy in place for the crucial game.
“You look down and there’s a few cracks that meet up. Only time will tell if they will come into it. (I) don’t want to have too many preconceived ideas about pitches, but you do have to have some sort of idea which informs the XI you pick,” the 32-year-old said.
Read: India pick squad for final three Tests against England; no Virat Kohli for rest of series
India saw their fortunes take a turn for the better in the second match, thanks to a superlative effort by pacer Jasprit Bumrah, who snared nine wickets on a sporting track.
Asked if England will have any special plans in place for the bowler, Stokes said,” No not really.”
“Jasprit Bumrah is an unbelievable bowler. He’s proven that for a very long time and has performed really well in the two games. I think everyone has to go their own way of not trying to deal with Bumrah but we do have to score runs off him as well and that’s what we’ll try to do,” Stokes, who has been dismissed by the ace pacer quite a few times in the series so far, said.
“But when that doesn’t work, you just have to give credit to the bowler and Jasprit’s been outstanding the first two games. We’ve all got our own processes against every single bowler and there’s no team way of playing anyone. “But as we always try to do we’ll be trying to keep the focus around us,” he added.
Stokes was not particularly happy with the analysis that Virat Kohli and K L Rahul’s absence from the series amounts to advantage for England.
While Kohli has been ruled out of the entire series due to personal reasons, Rahul is at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru recuperating from a quadriceps tear injury which he suffered in the first Test at Hyderabad.
“KL sustained an injury in the first game and that has kept him out. I said the other day that Virat not being here, I don’t like it being used as a benefit to us or a disadvantage to India,” Stokes said ahead of England’s training session.
“There are some specific reasons as to why he is not playing in this series and it should be left to that as opposed to an advantage or disadvantage to any side.
“I wish Virat with everything that’s going around and all our well wishes from the team. You want the best players playing and he is one of them. Hopefully he will be back on the field very soon,” he added.
Stokes said England’s past experience of this venue, having played a Test in 2016, combined with the nature of the pitch here resulted in spinner Shoaib Bashir being swapped with pacer Mark Wood.
“Taking a bit of knowledge from the last Test we played here a long time ago. It was a pretty flat wicket and looking at it today I think it looks good,” he said.
“Bringing in an extra seamer is the option we have gone with because we think that is going to give us the best chance of winning this week. Baz (coach Brendon McCullum) does all the good and bad news and I am there for the players to (have) any further conversations with that. “Bash (Shoaib Bashir) performed incredibly well in his first game for England, he will take it in his stride, he is a young lad and obviously no one has played every game possible,” Stokes added.
The all-rounder has made 6,251 runs in 99 Tests with 13 hundreds and took 197 wickets.
(With PTI inputs)
