Manchester [UK], July 22 : Ahead of fourth Test against India at Manchester, England captain Ben Stokes spoke on his team's World Test Championship (WTC) points getting docked due to slow-over-rate at Lord's and said that same slow-over-rate rules cannot apply to Asia, where spin bowling dominates and England, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa, where pacers have to do the heavy duty, which causes delay in the game due to resting and tactical reasons.
While England is heading into Old Trafford having 2-1 lead in the series, the win at Lord's was not too sweet as they had to face a slow over rate sanction in the form of WTC points reduction. They are ranked third in the WTC table despite being the second-best side statistically, with two wins and a loss during this cycle as compared to Australia's three wins in a row against West Indies.
"I can understand it from an external point of view around the overs, I really do. But it is a very tough thing to do when I feel there is more to it than just getting rounds, getting to a large, just quicken up, get through your overs," Stokes said at pre-match presser.
"There is a lot that actually goes out on the field. You have got fast bowlers bending their back consistently. Throughout the course of a game, the time of overs is going to come down because you have just got tired bodies," he added.
Stokes said that on their 15th day at the field overall, during the final day at Lord's, they could not get much quicker and easier overs of spin due to Bashir's injury, so it was mostly paceres who bowled for most of the day, and it caused things to slow down.
"There are periods in the game where you do try to slow everything down, more tactically if anything like that. Overrating is not something I worry about, but that doesn't mean I purposely slow things down. I do understand the frustration around it, but I honestly think there needs to be a real hard look at how it is structured," said Stokes.
"You cannot have the same rules in Asia where spin is bowling 70 per cent of the overs to have the same laws in New Zealand, Australia, England, where it is going to be 70-80 per cent of seam bowlers. Because the spinners take less time than the seamers to get done with their overs, so common sense would think that you should look at maybe changing how the overs are timed in different continents," he added.
Stokes said that over-rates have decreased in recent years and wondered if this was related to the increasing scoring rates.
"I think there is just so much that influences how your over rates....You want to keep the quality of cricket as high as you possibly can. There are times in games where there is not a game on the line where you will just throw the ball to a spinner to get it in," he concluded.
England (Playing XI): Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes(c), Jamie Smith(w), Liam Dawson, Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Jofra Archer.
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