England all-rounder Ben Stokes has revealed that English pacers James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Jofra Archer have been licking their lips to bowl with the pink ball against India at Motera from Wednesday, February 24.
The third Test at the newly-constructed Motera stadium in Ahmedabad is crucial not only for the sake of this series but also for the qualification to the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) Final. While India needs to win the series 2-1 or 3-1, the visitors have to win 3-1 to play the aforementioned WTC Final.
Ben Stokes is stoked to play the pink ball Test especially knowing the fact that his side’s fast bowlers are charged up. He revealed that their nets session got pretty dangerous when the three bowled under lights and had to be stopped from bowling to avoid any injuries.
Stokes told talkSPORT, “Broady, Jimmy, and Jofra have been licking their lips. It's been a completely different game. Whether that's going to be similar in the middle we're not sure.”
“When the lights came on, the nets actually got really dangerous. The bowlers had to stop bowling in the nets because we were actually worried that some of the batters were going to get injured,” he added.
England captain Joe Root has been in tremendous form with the bat since arriving in Asia. He scored two hundreds in two Tests against Sri Lanka and then continued with another century in the first Test against India.
He wants to keep performing against the Indian spinners and is aware of the fact that they will come on to bowl sooner or later in the pink ball Test as well.
Root said, “It's going to spin at some point, it's just a question of when. That's always the case when we come here. We experienced it very early in the last Test, it might not be the case quite so much this time around.”
“Playing against India in the subcontinent you expect the ball to spin. We have to make sure we are in the best place to manage that,” he added.
He is confident about the hard work his players have put in during the week to play an Indian side with a similar balance to the previous Tests. Contrary to that, if they have a seam-heavy side, the English players’ natural style of play will help them compete.
The 30-year-old said, “If they (India) go in with a similarly balanced team we should be mentally prepared for that and we should have put the work in this week which, from what I have seen, the guys have certainly done.”
“If it is more seam-orientated then the experience of growing up in English conditions should be in our favor and it is about handling those conditions as best we can and try to exploit them with the ball in hand,” Root concluded.
(With inputs from India Today)
