Ashes 2023: “Saw an opportunity to pounce on Australia,” Stokes defends bold declaration after Edgbaston Test loss

Stokes shocked one and all by declaring England’s first innings at 393/8 on Day 1.

Before the Ashes 2023 opener against Australia at Edgbaston, there were plenty of discussions about whether England would continue with their ultra-aggressive approach, which they have adopted under the leadership of skipper Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum.

As it turned out, the hosts did bat aggressively right from the first ball of the match. Moreover, Stokes shocked one and all by declaring England’s first innings at 393/8 on Day 1.

However, the decision of declaration came under the scanner after England suffered a heartbreaking two-wicket defeat at the hands of Australia on Tuesday (June 20).

Amid the scrutiny, Stokes defended the decision, stating that England wanted to “pounce” on Australia.

“I saw (the declaration) as an opportunity to pounce on Australia. No one likes to go out for 20 minutes at the back end of a day,” Stokes said after the Test match, as quoted by Sky Sports.

"Scoring 390 and then being able to declare sends a message to Australia about how we want to take them on.

“If we didn't declare, would we have got that excitement like we did at the end? I'm not 100 per cent sure but I'm not going to be looking back at this game as what ifs. We just didn't manage to get over the line.”

Heading into the final day, the hosts needed seven wickets and the tourists required 174 more runs to win the contest. In the end, the match went down to the wire.

Having reduced Australia to 227/8, England were inching closer towards victory in the final session. On the other hand, Australia skipper Pat Cummins was joined by Nathan Lyon in the middle. They had a tough task at hand as the visitors still needed 54 runs to get over the finishing line.

Amid the pressure situation, Cummins struck an unbeaten 44 and was well supported by Nathan Lyon who made 16 not out in an unbroken partnership of 55 runs for the ninth wicket to take Australia home.

Reflecting on the match, Stokes said there were many different moments where situations could've turned in favour of either side.

"I mean, look, you play cricket over five days. There's so many things that goes on that you could look back at, you know, sort of 20 individual moments, which you could go like, 'oh, if that happened, if that went our way could this game have been different?' But, you know, I don't like to look at things like that.

“We've managed to stand up to Australia and being in control for most of it makes it hurt a little bit more that we've lost but there are four more games left,” he remarked.