England captain Ben Stokes has revealed that they won’t change their aggressive playing style against India in the rescheduled Test match. The English team is high on confidence as they recently defeated Test champions New Zealand 3-0.
England adopted an aggressive style under new head coach Brendon McCullum and they were able to reap rewards for the same. In the second and third Test match against the Kiwis, England had to chase close to 300 runs and they were able to get over the line in 50 (second match) and 54.2 overs (third match).
Jonny Bairstow scored a fine knock of 136 runs in the second innings of the second Test match whereas Joe Root, Ollie Pope, and Bairstow all contributed in the run-chase in the third Test.
Ben Stokes said in the pre-match press conference, “Well, we just beat the best team (New Zealand) in the world 3-0. India is obviously a completely different opposition, different dynamic of a team but we are concentrating on ourselves. We understand what we do well but we have also taken into account who we are playing against. Just because the opposition changes doesn’t mean we change.”
Stokes admitted that he didn’t watch all the four matches between India and England in 2021 when he was out of action due to mental health issues.
“To be honest, I wasn’t even watching cricket last summer. I didn’t watch most of it (India-England matches). But the thing with India is, the way Virat (Kohli) led India in Tests, was something to watch. So yeah, looking forward to the contest again.”
The talisman all-rounder added that they want people to enjoy watching them play and they want to play an attacking brand of cricket.
“We still obviously know that we need to win this game to draw the series. We obviously want to win every game we play but it is bigger than that. I think what we managed to do over the last three weeks is just reshape Test cricket with the way we played. We want people to enjoy watching us play. I think people are enjoying watching us play because they don’t know what they are going to get.”
India has a 2-1 lead in the series and England will have to win the final Test match to draw level.
