England Test skipper Ben Stokes on Thursday (30th June) said that change in the opposition will not change their approach and they will play the same attacking brand of cricket against India in the rescheduled Test at Edgbaston.
Under Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum, England has looked completely different. Their new era in Tests started with a 3-0 series win against New Zealand. They displayed a staggering performance in all departments and it was a collective effort from the whole side to register their first series win under a new skipper and coach.
English players looked very optimistic on the field and many credited the duo of Stokes and McCullum for the positive change in the team. They played an attacking brand of cricket and pulled off incredible chases in all three games.
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They are now slated to play India in the fifth Test of the series. Going into the match, the Stokes-led side will be very confident and are looked at as the favourites to win. The visitors are currently leading the series 2-1 and England would look to deny them the win and register their fourth consecutive victory under the new skipper and coach.
Speaking to reporters on the eve of the fifth Test against India, Ben Stokes said that they want to win every game they play and they are aware that they need to clinch the match to draw the series.
"We still obviously know that we need to win this game to draw the series. But you know as I said at the end of last week that, at the moment it is bigger than results, it is bigger than you know, what happens on the field, there is more to it. We obviously want to win every game we play but it is bigger than that," Ben Stokes said.
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Stokes explained that similar to how England's ODI cricket changed after 2015, his team has been able to "reshape Test cricket" by playing aggressively and promoting people to "enjoy" watching them play.
“I think what we managed to do over the last three weeks is just reshape Test cricket with the way we played. We want people to enjoy us watching play. I think people are enjoying watching us play because they don't know what they are going to get because they don't know how it is going to turn out but they know how we are going to play. I have sort of likened it to the ODI thing we started after 2015 World Cup, everybody wanted to watch us play," he said.
Stokes said that although India is different to New Zealand, whom they beat 3-0, they will concentrate on themselves and change in the opposition will not change them at all.
"Well, we just beat the best team (New Zealand) in the world 3-0. India are obviously a completely different opposition, different dynamic of a team but we are concentrating on ourselves. We understand what we do well but we have also taken into account who we are playing against. Just because the opposition changes doesn't mean we change,” he said.
Stokes said that it’s only his side that has the potential to play a more attacking brand of cricket than what was on display against New Zealand. He also lauded Virat Kohli for his leadership skills and said that he’s looking forward to the contest.
“If there's a team that can, it's us. To be honest, I wasn't even watching cricket last summer, I didn't watch most of it (India-England matches). But the thing with India is, the way Virat (Kohli) led India in Tests, was something to watch. So yeah, looking forward to the contest again," Stokes said.
(PTI inputs)
