England captain Ben Stokes sends pointed message to critics after emphatic India defeat - 'Don't work out'

England captain Ben Stokes sends pointed message to critics after emphatic India defeat - 'Don't work out'

WATCH NOW: Sports round-up as England slump to India defeat

Jack Otway

By Jack Otway


Published: 18/02/2024

- 12:54

The Three Lions now trail their rivals 2-1 in the series

England captain Ben Stokes has hit back at critics after India went 2-1 up in their Test series on Sunday.

The hosts won by 434 runs after bowling the tourists out for 122 to boost their chances of glory, with Ravindra Jadeja impressing with five wickets.


It was a difficult Test for England, who have plenty of work to do if they're to turn the situation around.

Yet Stokes has hit back at critics of his side while fronting up to the media following the defeat, with the 32-year-old adamant he and his team-mates aren't fazed by sceptics over their style of play.

England India

England star Ben Stokes has fronted up after his side's defeat to India on Sunday

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He told TNT Sports: "Everyone has got a perception and opinion.

"The people in the dressing room are the opinions that really matter to us.

"Sometimes things don't work out how we want them to. 2-1 down and two games left. We have a great opportunity for 4-2.

"We leave this game behind us and know we have to win the next two games to win the series."

He added: "Ben Duckett played an unbelievable innings and that was the tone we wanted to set throughout the whole innings.

"For us it is about identifying that opportunity to really push on and get as close as we could to India's total.

"I actually said I wanted to be bowling yesterday although it came earlier than we wanted, just because of how we felt the wicket was going.

"We wanted to push the game on as much as we could. Sometimes gameplans don't work out and that is sport sometimes."

While it was a difficult match for England, India were excellent.

They faced criticism after losing the opening Test but, with two successive victories to their name, now have the lead.

And captain Rohit Sharma was full of praise for his side, insisting they benefitted from winning the toss due to the job being 'half done'.

"When you play Test cricket, it's not played over two days or three days," he said.

"We know the importance of staying in the game for five days.

"They put us under pressure, we've got class in our squad when it comes to bowling.

"The message was to stay calm, it's easy to drift away from what you want to do. I'm proud of how we came back, and when that happens it's a delight to watch.

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England India

Ben Stokes feels England can turn their situation around after crashing to India defeat

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"It was a good toss to win, we know how important in India it is to win and get runs on the board.

"After that onslaught from the England batters, the bowlers showed a lot of character.

"We knew the job was half done, in the second innings we wanted to come out and bat and get the lead that we wanted."

India moved Jadeja up their batting order to try and put more pressure on England.

And Sharma explained that decision by saying: "For this game we thought Jadeja has so much experience, he's scored a lot of runs of late.

England India

England weren't good enough with India superior with both bat and ball during their Test win on Sunday

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"We always wanted that left-right batting, we know the quality Sarfaraz brings and we wanted to give him time before he comes into bat - we saw what he did batting.

"We don't have any long term plan with the batting order, we just go with the flow and also depending on the bowling composition of the opposition."

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