Before the fourth Test at Old Trafford, which starts on Wednesday, Ben Stokes made it clear to India that his team will not back down from any arguments on the field.
Stokes said at a press conference before the game, This is a big series, and things will get heated. Has England been too friendly? Maybe. We won’t start any trouble, but we also won’t back down.
The series is already intense, with England ahead 2-1. Stokes said that the team enjoyed a much-needed break after their win at Lord’s.
He joked, I was in bed for two days and felt like I was in a long-distance relationship with my family. It was a good win and a nice break. We’ll try to bring the same energy next week.
England has made one change for the Manchester Test, with left-arm spinner Liam Dawson replacing the injured Shoaib Bashir. Stokes praised Dawson’s return, mentioning his performances at home.
Dawson has been doing well. He was called back to the team, and I am sure he will be nervous, but he has enough experience to deal with it.
Stokes also welcomed back Chris Woakes, who is back after a break. We had a long break, which was a good chance to rest. Woakes has a good record here.
The England captain didn’t avoid the issue about slow over-rate fines. After the Lord’s Test win, England was docked two WTC points and fined 10% of their match fee. Because of this, Stokes called for a change.
Stokes said, I don’t worry about the over rate, but that doesn’t mean I purposely slow things down. I understand why people are annoyed by it, but I think we need to rethink how it’s set up. The rules can’t be the same in Asia, where spin is used for 70% of the overs, as they are in New Zealand, Australia, and England, where seam bowling will be used for 70-80% of the overs.
Because a spinner’s over is faster than a seamer’s over, it makes sense to change how over rates are timed in different places.
Stokes defended England’s over-rate in the Lord’s Test by pointing out Bashir’s injury and the heavy workload on the fast bowlers.
I understand the complaints about the overs from the outside, I really do. But it’s hard to fix things by just speeding up. Fast bowlers are putting a lot of strain on their bodies all the time. So, as a game goes on, the time per over will go down because players are tired.
We played for five days, which was our 15th day of cricket. Shoaib Bashir, a spinner, was hurt. So, we couldn’t use our spinner as much as we wanted to on day five. We had to use seam bowlers for most of the day. That will obviously make things slower. Sometimes, you slow things down on purpose for tactical reasons.