London [UK], August 4 : Following a six-run loss to India at The Oval which denied England a series win, England skipper Ben Stokes reflected on the dropped catches which inflated the target Three Lions were given and said that his take on substitute role has not changed despite England being one player short in the match due to Chris Woakes' shoulder injury.
Stokes' led England fought hard, but relentless spells from Prasidh Krishna and Mohammed Siraj ultimately denied them a series victory, which they have been chasing against India, both away and at home, since their 2018 series win at home by 4-1. This match saw England play a large chunk of it without their experienced all-rounder Chris Woakes, who faced a shoulder injury while fielding on day one. The bowling workload fell heavily on the shoulders of Josh Tongue, Gus Atkinson and Jamie Overton. Even when Woakes came to bat, he did not face a delivery; it was to serve as a partner to Atkinson at the other end as he attempted to hit the remaining runs to win.
Speaking about substitute rule during the presser, he said, "Yeah, I just do not see it being a thing like, sorry about this, but if someone gets injured, tough, deal with it. That is how we view it. I could have got into this game knowing I had a sore shoulder, and I will give it a go and hopefully I will come through, but if I do not, I know I have got someone else who can come in and replace me. You select 11, and it is actually tactical, so I feel like there is room where you could actually manipulate it a bit. So I remain heavily against it. Just sobs low that this had to happen the week after I said it, but my view has not changed."
Earlier, Stokes had disagreed with the idea of an injury substitute when wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant batted for India despite an injury during the fourth Manchester Test.
During the match, England missed plenty of catches, especially at slips, which led to their target being 374 runs. Speaking on these catches, Stokes said that one can look at plenty of moments in the match where, had they taken the advantage, things could have been different, but no one drops catches on purpose.
"I think you can always look back on six chances (dropped catches) as obviously a lot and if we do take those maybe we are chasing, well probably would be chasing something smaller than that. But yeah, you can go over so many moments in a five-day test match and all the times that it has been out in the field and say if this had been slightly different, we could have been in a slightly different situation, sitting here talking to you guys. No one means to drop catches obviously but I think if we look back on that, yeah you could say that those chances that we did put down did cost us. Look back to Headingley when we chased down those runs, India dropped quite a few chances of us and that probably contributed towards us winning. So yeah, maybe if we did hold on to those chances things could have been a little bit different but no one means to drop catches. Drop catches are part of the game," he said.
Speaking about spending a lot of time on the field while bowling and if it bodes well for the team ahead of the Ashes later this year, Stokes replied, "Yeah, good teams bowl a lot. Better teams bowl a bit less do not they?."
After England opted to bowl first, they reduced India to 153/6. A 58-run partnership between Karun Nair (57 in 109 balls, with eight fours) and Washington Sundar (26 in 55 balls, with three fours) was the most meaningful part of the inning as India was bundled out for 224 runs. Apart from Gus Atkinson's five-wicket haul, Josh Tongue (3/57) was also good.
In the second innings, four-fers from Siraj (4/86) and Prasidh Krishna (4/62) reduced England to 247, despite a 92-run opening stand between Zak Crawley (64 in 57 balls, with 14 fours) and Ben Duckett (43 in 38 balls, with five fours and two sixes) and a fifty by Harry Brook (53 in 64 balls, with five fours and a six). They led by 23 runs.
In India's second innings, key contributions came from Yashasvi Jaiswal (118 in 164 balls, with 14 fours and two sixes), Akash Deep (66 in 94 balls, with 12 fours), Ravindra Jadeja (53 in 77 balls, with five fours) and Washington Sundar (53 in 46 balls, with four boundaries and four sixes). Sundar stitched a very crucial 10th wicket stand with Krishna, with the latter scoring nothing out of it and Sundar doing all the hitting.
They all took India to 396 runs, giving them a 373-run lead and setting a target of 374 runs for England to win the series.
India started well, reducing England to 106/3. However, fine centuries from Harry Brook (111 in 98 balls, with 14 fours and two sixes) and Joe Root (105 in 152 balls, with 12 fours) troubled India with a 195-run stand for the fourth wicket. At one point, England was 317/4 on day four. However, a late surge by Siraj (5/104) and Krishna (4/126) shifted the pressure to England, and they were left six runs short, bundled out for 367 runs.
The series is drawn 2-2, reflecting the true nature of how well-fought the series was. The Shubman Gill era has started with immense promise and fight, giving signs of a bright future.
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