England captain Ben Stokes sang praises of India wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant and said that he is someone who fits perfectly in the England team setup at the moment given the way he bats and plays his game.
His words came after England secured a 2-2 series leveling victory in the fifth Test match against India at Edgbaston where they won by 7 wickets while chasing a record target of 378, the highest the three lions have ever hunted down in Tests.
However, Stokes was all praises for young Rishabh Pant, whose belligerent 146 in the first innings, helped India put on 416 runs on the board from being 98/5 at one time, as he shared a 222-run partnership with Ravindra Jadeja, who also made 104 runs.
“Look at Rishabh's innings. He is someone who would fit very well in our team at the moment, the way he goes about the game. It was incredible to watch and he’s someone who has had criticism in the past but is getting the plaudits for playing that way. The more we see players like that succeed in the way they want to, the more the negativity around that type of test cricket will eventually die out.
It is so exciting to watch because cricket is an entertainment business – yes you want results but you want people to enjoy watching a spectacle – it’s about doing it differently now so cheers Rishabh!” Stokes was quoted as saying by Mirror.co.uk.
Amongst the most entertaining things he talked about, Stokes revealed a new term in the new Bazball innovation in England cricket under the coach Brendon McCullum- Nighthawk.
Wonder what ‘nighthawk’ is? Well as explained by Stokes, it’s a more advanced version of nightwatchman, whose job it is to try and see the team to the close late in the day if a wicket has fallen.
A night watchman is supposed to leave the ball if it is not on the stumps and defend it if it is. Not the nighthawk. The nighthawk’s job is to enter the fray late on and slog for all he’s worth - which is why Stuart Broad has been nominated for the role on a few occasions this summer.
“He might get 30 off 10 balls or 0 from 1. We are looking at every situation we are going to find ourselves in and what the positive thing to do is. For example, we renamed what the nightwatchman is all about. We called it ‘Nighthawk.’ “That was Broady. He was going out with half an hour left to play to try to literally slog. That’s where we are at the moment, it’s awesome.
Every week that’s gone by over the last five weeks it’s got better and better, it’s amazing to think what we’ve done. That’s what we want to do – we want to create a legacy of Test cricket. We have done that in white ball cricket and we have seen other teams follow,” Stokes explained.
(Mirror.co.uk inputs)
