England’s Ben Stokes said Monday he tried to enjoy the professional journey and smile — despite losing his first Test series as captain against India.
The tourists went down to India by five wickets on day four of the fourth Test in Ranchi, as the hosts took an unbeatable 3-1 lead in the five-match series.
“I think it was a great test match. The scoreline says India win by five wickets but I don’t think that gives enough credit to sum up the game as a whole,” Stokes said at the presentation ceremony.
“The series has shown a lot of talent, for us and India. I love test cricket and we’ve seen some young, inexperienced players perform and the future looks bright in this format.”
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India topple England a test early | 02:16
England won the opener to hand India their first Test loss since 2013 but went down in the next three matches.
It was the first series defeat for Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum since they took charge in 2022 and changed England’s fortunes with their attacking philosophy dubbed “Bazball”.
Stokes was asked on Monday evening whether England lacked a ruthless edge in the moments that mattered most, suggesting that criticism is often a “throwaway comment”.
“Ruthlessness? What is it? How does it show itself? Everyone goes into the game with their best intentions, when it doesn’t pay off people say we’re not ruthless but when they do, they say we are,” he said.
“I don’t really understand the saying. That’s from my point of view; we try to do what we think is the best way to win the game. It can be a throwaway comment when people say we’re not ruthless enough. What does it mean?”
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The 32-year-old Stokes, an all-rounder who is playing this series only as a batsman after knee surgery last year, played his 101st Test since his debut in 2013.
Stokes, a left-hand batsman, made 70 at the start of the series to lead England to a 28-run win in Hyderabad.
Faced with challenging Indian conditions, he brought in two new spinners, Shoaib Bashir and Tom Hartley.
In the fourth Test, Bashir constantly put India in trouble in the first and second innings — with a match haul of eight wickets.
7/35! England CRUMBLE again! | 04:42
But the batting disappointed, as England were bundled out for 145 in their second innings on day three in Ranchi, handing India a victory target of 192.
Indian spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Kuldeep Yadav shared nine wickets between them and Ravindra Jadeja took one to bowl England out in 53.5 overs.
“We’ve been good in periods, yesterday with the bat, I don’t want to say impossible because I don’t think anything is impossible, but that was incredibly hard yesterday when you get conditions against Ashwin, Jadeja and Kuldeep like that.,” Stokes said.
“Scoring becomes very, very hard, especially when you want to eke the game out as long as we wanted to do.
“We didn’t think the pitch was going to get any better, and I think we’ve seen that today. So look, I think the way in which the Indian spinners operated yesterday made it incredibly hard for us to score but also to rotate the strike. That little period there was very, very tough.”
Yet England hung in there despite the fact that Stokes said there was an outside view that they “didn’t have a chance in hell of even competing” with India.
“But even today that wasn’t an easy win and I think they would admit that,” he added.
Umpire’s call ironically saves Stokes | 01:01
While losing the series was a disappointment, there was a clear positive to come out of the experienced gained by two inexperienced spinners that England brought on the tour in Bashir and Hartley.
Stokes said the “sky is the limit” for Bashir and was proud of the way both players did not back down from the challenge of taking the game on.
“Shoaib Bashir, I mean, wow, what a story and what a journey,” Stokes said on TNT Sports.
“Coming in and taking eight wickets in the game, getting his first five-wicket haul in a Test match against India. I mean, the sky’s the limit for that guy. I’m very, very proud of him.
“Not only the way in which Hartley and Bashir performed, but their character as well.
“It should be very, very intimidating for two young spinners at the start of his career to come out on day four and try to bowl India out for a pretty small target.
“But looking at them, you thought you’re always in the game because of a wicket and not once did they take a backwards step, not once did you look at their body language or their enthusiasm towards the game and think that.”