Ben Stokes, England captain, admitted to his ‘lazy’ running after a Shreyas Iyer direct hit found him short of the crease on day 4 of the recent second Test against India.
Stokes revealed a confused state of mind as he failed to complete a quick single, leading to a decisive moment in the hard-fought Test match.
England resumed on day four at 67/1 in their pursuit of 399 runs. But Ravichandran Ashwin and Jasprit Bumrah kept chipping away with crucial and timely wickets in the first session. Zak Crawley fell once again in the 70s and top-scored for England.
A lot depended on Ben Stokes, but in the 53rd over, Stokes appeared too casual in his running between the wickets and Shreyas Iyer’s throw hit the only stump he could see. In the end, England lost by 106 runs and India leveled the series 1-1.
"I was trying to describe it in the dressing room, it was like one of those dreams where you're trying to run faster but you can't," Stokes said of his run out in a post-match conference.
"I knew I had to go faster but for some reason, I just couldn't, it was a really bizarre couple of seconds. You'd think by now at 32 I'd learn not to do that, it's not the first time I've been run out doing something stupid. I always seem to do something that's a talking point, good or bad, don't I," Stokes said.
Stokes has recovered from his knee surgery and his fitness and success of surgery was evident from his brilliant running catch of Shreyas Iyer on Day 3 of the 2nd Test. Stokes ran backward around 25 yards from mid-off to grab a screamer of a catch.
"I got myself in the ring a bit more yesterday, purely to get a different view of the game and angles. When I was at extra cover I felt I was able to move a lot better, throwing the ball in off balance, so for me, before the surgery that is something I found very hard and didn't have much confidence doing," he said.
"I don't think I would have been able to take that catch before this surgery but the way I was able to move, the freedom that I felt, picking the ball up off balance. I can't remember the last time I had grass burns because I never dived because I was worried about my knee. I feel very good about my knee. Worked very hard to get to where I am now. Definitely ahead of schedule from when I went under the knife," Stokes said.
The third Test of the series will be played in Rajkot from February 15 onwards.
