Ben Stokes described himself as “simple-minded when it comes to cricket” but with England’s victory over India in the first Test here he demonstrated the extraordinary impact of his methods.
Before his appointment in 2022 no England captain had guided the team to more than two successful fourth-innings run chases of more than 250 runs. The 373they scored to winwas Stokes’s sixth, a remarkable record he said owed everything to clarity, calmness, and “turning up every session with the attitude that we could blow this match apart”.
“We’re a very simple-minded pair, me and Baz, when it comes to cricket,” he said of his partnership with the team’s coach, Brendon McCullum, and their ability to inspire such fourth-innings heroics. “We just try to keep everything as simple and as calm as we possibly can.
“When you’re chasing down totals like that, keeping the relaxed vibe as much as we can is so important to the mindset of someone, to go out there in the middle with the pressures of that situation. Everyone goes out there with a pretty clear mind about what we’re trying to do. [Our task] was pretty simple: if we bat the overs that are left in the game, we will win.”
In the glow of victory, Stokes was able to hit back at those who lambasted his decision at the toss to put India in to bat when the tourists proceeded to coast to 359 for three at the end of the opening day. “Test matches are played over five days,” he said. “Imagine thinking that way at the end of day one, before we’ve even had a chance to bat on a wicket.
“You never know what a wicket’s going to play like half an hour before any cricket’s been played on it. They put a big score on the board, but we hadn’t batted on it.”
On a day of extraordinary feats with the bat, Stokes paid tribute to the bowlers who, in both innings, struggled to find a way through India’s top order but then blew away their tail.
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“There’s been a lot of skill that has contributed to us winning this Test match, but our attitude as well,” he said. “Every session we turned up with the attitude that we could blow this match apart. One thing we’ve done so well this week is our commitment to turning up every day and every session.
“In particular, sometimes when you’ve been out on the field for a long time it’s very easy to wait for things to happen. All we tried to focus on was running in and making sure all you’re thinking was you’re going to be the person to blow this game open, and at any point that could happen.”
Shubman Gill, the India captain, lamented his team’s failure to capitalise on their good start to the match. “We had our moments on top, but England are so good and we needed to kill the game when we had the chance,” he said.
Gautam Gambhir, the India coach, confirmed that Jasprit Bumrah, the world’s No 1 Test bowler, would, as rumoured, play only two of the four remaining games in the series. “He’s going to play three matches. We won’t change it,” he said. “For us to manage his workload is more important. There is a lot of cricket going forward.”
Gambhir backed his other seamers to make up for Bumrah’s absence. “We trust in them. When we picked this squad we picked on trust, not hope,” he said. “We have inexperienced bowlers, but they will keep getting better. I’m not going to sit here and say they didn’t bowl well, we’ve just got to be more consistent.”