As has been the custom since Ben Stokes took over as England’s Test skipper, the playing XI for the first Test has been announced a day before the match. On the batting front, all seems to be normal, with Ben Foakes taking over the mitts from Jonny Bairstow as the only change in their lineup.
However, given how the Indian pitches play, Ben Stokes has decided to field three spinners. By doing so, England has forced themselves to play a lone pacer bowler in their XI, Mark Wood. This means that a spinner will open the bowling alongside Wood.
Now, we all Stokes is an aggressive captain, but has he taken it too far? Is benching James Anderson and Ollie Robinson the right call?
Ben Stokes 4-man attack, a recipe for disaster?
Stokes’ decision to play a 4-man bowling attack in Hyderabad means that their spinners will carry the burden of one more bowler and, in turn, risk getting injured.
We already know about Wood’s injury woes. Jack Leach will be playing his first-ever match since getting injured in June. These two, coupled with debutant Tom Hartley and one-match-old Rehan Ahmed, seem to be a recipe for disaster.
We might see Joe Root bowl his part-time off-spin, but with Ben Stokes not yet cleared to bowl, does it make sense to play two injury-prone bowlers and two inexperienced spinners and bench someone who has 183 Test matches under his belt?
Even Ollie Robinson’s slow medium worked well on dead Pakistani pitches. This once again begs the question: When is it enough? And, is it fair to call out Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum for their outlandish decisions under the guise of ‘Bazball’?
From the looks of it, the England cricket team is destined to get a thrashing in Hyderabad. With little to no experience for players like Zak Crawler, Rehan Ahmed, and Tom Hartley combined with the proven failures of Bairstow, Pope, and Duckett in the past tours.
But, despite all the fair and unfair criticism, Stokes has proved himself as captain over and over again in the last two years. He might have picked the wrong XI for the IND vs ENG 1st Test, but if anyone can make it work, it’s him.
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