Follow UsEngland lost the second Test at Edgbaston by a huge margin of 336 runs after putting India to bat first after winning the toss. Their skipper, Ben Stokes, highlighted the two key moments in the post-match presentation where he felt that his side lost the game.
“Two moments. Having them at 200/5 and not being able to burst them open. And then being 80/5 in our reply to India's big 1st innings there is obviously going to be tough to be able to scrape it back from there,” the all-rounder captain said, who himself could score only 33 runs across the two innings on the track.
“You look back at the start of the game, 200/5, if we were able to get some wickets quicker, things could have been a little different. As the game got deeper and deeper, it sort of turned into a wicket, which probably suited India more than us, to be honest. Being 80/5 in reply to India's big first innings total is going to be tough from there. We ran in and tried everything, we changed plans and when a team is on top of you, obviously India is a class team. It's always very hard to wrestle back when the opposition is full of world-class performers.”
Stokes although took some time to praise young Jamie Smith who batted brilliantly in the Test. He also added that with the next Test only three days later, there might be some changes coming in the bowling department as the team will look at the workload of the pacers.
“Jamie has been incredible since he came into the team, he has been exceptional with the bat and he goes massively into the radar with his wicket-keeping,” Stokes said.
“Just shows that his natural game and the way he and Harry [Brook] were able to wrestle the momentum back towards us, I thought it was a very, very special part of the game to watch from the dressing room.
“Been another tough week, spent some time in the field, and bowlers have run in hard all week again. We got to reset on everything and see where we end up come Lord's.”
The third Test at Lord’s will begin from July 10.