Ben Stokes, the captain of England, has defended his actions after becoming embroiled in a “handshake controversy” after the 4th Test match against India in Manchester. Since obtaining a result was no longer an option, Stokes urged Washington Sundar and Ravindra Jadeja to shake hands on Day 5 and end the match in a tie. The England captain chose to pass the ball to Harry Brook, a player who doesn’t even have the reputation of a part-timer, after the Indian pair, who were both effortlessly approaching their hundreds, turned down Stokes’ offer.
Stokes praised Jadeja and Sundar in the press conference, but he didn’t applaud them on the field when they both reached the 100-run milestone.
According to Ben Stokes, “the knock that those two played was very, very good,” following the game.
“The situation that India found themselves in there, with us opening the game slightly, that partnership was massive. You hold your hands up, they played incredibly, incredibly well. And I don’t think there would’ve been too much more satisfaction from walking off a hundred not out, getting your team out of a tricky situation, than walking off at 80, 90 not out. That’s what you’ve done for your team. You know, the 10 more runs or whatever it was ain’t gonna change the fact that you’ve managed to get your team out of a very, very, very tricky situation and almost saved your team from a series defeat before the last game.”
Many people criticized Sokes’ action. Stokes passionately defended the choice when questioned about it. The captain stated that he was unwilling to risk his frontline bowlers in the final overs that needed to be bowled because a result was out of the question.
“With our frontline bowlers, I believe we played the game as far as we could to give ourselves a realistic opportunity of victory. However, given our short turnaround time and the workload we’ve had this week and throughout the series, I was never going to risk any of my frontline bowlers once it became clear that a draw was probable. Therefore, it was inevitable that there would be a handshake as soon as the final hour or the fifteen overs arrived.
“As I already stated, Harry Brook is the only other individual who genuinely has any bowling burden. ‘Please don’t do something dumb,’ I had to tell him. You can’t pull aside or do anything else since we spend so much time on the field. You’ll be exhausted, of course, even if you don’t bowl. I thought, “Just get through this phase.” However, after we realized what was happening, I wasn’t going to jeopardize any of my, you know, legitimate bowling alternatives,” he continued.
The head coach of the Indian team took a very different stance on the matter. Even if the game was headed for a tie, Gambhir felt that players like Jadeja and Sundar deserved to get their hundreds.
Expectations for the fifth and final match at the Kennington Oval are obvious based on how the fourth Test ended. India is behind 1-2, and if they want to finish the series in a draw, they must defeat England in the upcoming game.
