England’s Test captain Ben Stokes has credited his team's new fearless approach and dressing room atmosphere for making their daunting task of chasing a 378-run target easy in the rescheduled fifth and final Test against India at Edgbaston.
Stokes admitted that chasing a 378-run target would have been scary five to six weeks ago, but Brendon McCullum’s style made everything easy for England, as the hosts won the rescheduled Test by 7 wickets to share the series 2-2 with India, on Tuesday (July 5).
Stokes told Sky Sports at the post-match presentation ceremony: “It's down to the players, making my job easier. When you have clarity like we do in the dressing room it makes totals like that easier. 378 five weeks ago would have been scary, but it's all good.”
He continued, “We take away the scoreboard and how many runs there are to chase, it's all about taking wickets. Sometimes teams will be better than us, but no one will be braver than us, according to Jack Leach.”
Stokes also credited Alex Lees (56) and Zak Crawley (46) for making Joe Root's (142*) and Jonny Bairstow’s (114*) lives easy by stitching a 107-run opening stand in just 20 overs while tackling the new-ball attack from Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah on the final day of the match.
He signed off by saying, “Jonny and Rooty will get the plaudits, but you set the precedent by what your two openers do, and playing the way they did against Bumrah and Shami. We are trying to rewrite how Test cricket is being played, in England in particular. It's not always about top of off, it's about taking ten wickets.”
