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Before we were so rudely interrupted India were well on their way to defeating England in what had been an often bad-tempered Test series. But that was then and this is a very different now.
The sides resume at Edgbaston on Friday for the ‘final’ Test, shoehorning a game into a packed schedule that should have been played at Old Trafford last year, with India 2-1 up but with both sides under new management.
Captains Virat Kohli and Joe Root are back in the ranks, coaches Ravi Shastri and Chris Silverwood have moved on and England have not only stopped the rot that saw them without a victory in five series but come into this game on the crest of a crashing wave.
Ben Stokes missed the four Tests against India last year but is captain for the final match
Stokes chose not to bowl in the third Test against New Zealand ‘because he wanted his main bowlers to realise what they can do’
It is incredible to think now Ben Stokes missed those four Tests against India last year when he was taking a break from the game to protect his mental health.
For that reason his promotion as captain ahead of this summer was greeted somewhat cautiously by many but how spectacularly, so far at least, he has banished any worries about what the demands of the job might have on him.
Stokes has not only taken to captaincy like a duck to water but, along with Brendon McCullum, has launched a revolution that could change the way Test and first-class cricket is played around the world. Even Australia were playing Bazball in Sri Lanka on Thursday.
Jasprit Bumrah will captain India for the Test at Edgbaston after Rohit Sharma caught Covid-19
There Stokes was again on Thursday, defying conventional thinking when he said Zak Crawley still has his full support ‘regardless’ of what happens here and that he deliberately didn’t bowl in the first innings against New Zealand at Headingley last week because he wanted to make his bowlers ‘realise what they can do.’ Thinking out of the box does…
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Source : dailymail
