BCCI President Roger Binny made a strong statement on the defeat of the Ben Stokes-led England national cricket team in the five-match Test series against India. According to the former Indian cricketer, Stokes’ captaincy has been the reason for the English team’s downfall in Tests.
The England national cricket team has been playing with a Bazball approach in Test cricket since the appointment of Ben Stokes as captain and Brendon McCullum as head coach. Bazball’s approach aims for offensive and entertaining type of cricket in the purest format of the game.
This approach brought much success to England as they annihilated their opponents and remained unbeaten in all Test series heading into the tour of India. The Three Lions pulled off a spectacular victory in the first match of the tour of India to surprise the hosts.
Ben Stokes & Co. were expected to continue their winning streak, but the Indian team proved to be a dominant force in the next three matches. The Rohit Sharma-led team defeated the English team in three consecutive matches to destroy their hopes of winning the series and took an unassailable lead of 3-1.
Following England’s first loss in the Test series under Bazball’s regime, many former cricketers, including England greats, criticized the Ben Stokes-led team and raised doubts about Bazball’s substantiality against a strong opposition like India.
Now, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Roger Binny has reacted to England’s loss in the series and blamed Stokes’ captaincy for it. He mentioned that facing Indian spinners in tough situations instead of playing cautiously is not a good move.
“Well, Ben Stokes’ captaincy has been more aggressive, and I think that has been the (reason for his) fall in the few Test matches,” Binny, who is here to watch the proceedings, told PTI exclusively. chat.
“Being so aggressive and trying to take on the Indian spinners in tough times (situations) instead of staying there and trying to score big,” Binny said.
BCCI President Roger Binny greets India captain Rohit Sharma
The BCCI president is also very impressed with Rohit Sharma’s leadership in the England Test series. He said the Indian captain has been tactically smart and quite patient.
“Rohit Sharma has again been very tactful. You know he knew exactly what he wanted to do and he got his players to do it.”
“I don’t think England have changed their strategy. They followed the same mode of attack as they did in the first test match. But I think Rohit was more patient because at one point he had the first test in his pocket and then he let it go. He was patient enough in the next two tests and won both.”
Binny further criticized England’s batting for facing a horrendous collapse and going from 100/1 to 218/10 very quickly in the fifth Test.
“I think England are to blame for the situation they are in at the moment. I think they started well in the morning, it looked like they were going to get a good result.
“So far it has been India’s day. They have also been batting well so far and I think the Test series has been very one-sided after the first Test which England won. Thereafter, the Indian team did well and dominated the series.”
After putting England out for 218 on Day 1 of the fifth Test, thanks to Ravichandran Ashwin and Kuldeep Yadav, the Indian openers came out to bat with a positive intent and stitched a century-old partnership. On Day 1, the Indian national cricket team was 135/1 in 30 overs with Rohit Sharma (52) unbeaten in the middle along with Shu.bman Gill (26).