Ranchi, Feb 27: England captain Ben Stokes on Monday dismissed suggestions that his team lacked ruthlessness in their approach against India as they suffered their first Test series defeat in ‘Bazball’ era here on Monday.
India beat England by five wickets in the fourth and penultimate Test to take an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-match series.
The home team’s victory marked a stunning downfall for England’s ultra-aggressive ‘Bazball’ approach, which has been their much-hyped winning mantra since 2022 and is now facing all-round criticism for being too rigid and lacking in depth.
Asked if England lacked ruthlessness against India, Stokes replied: “Ruthlessness? What is it? How does it show itself?
“Everyone goes into the game with their best intentions; when it doesn’t pay off, people say we’re not ruthless, when it does, they say we are,” Stokes said in the post-match media conference.
Stokes emphasised that the perception of ruthlessness can be subjective and often misunderstood.
“I don’t really understand it. That’s from my point of view; we try to do what we think is the best way to win a game. It can be a throwaway comment when people say we’re not ruthless enough. What does it mean?” he questioned.
After Stokes took over from Joe Root as captain, England’s ‘Bazball’ approach has given them wins against New Zealand, South Africa and Pakistan.
In the last year’s Ashes too, England fought back to draw the series 2-2.
“Obviously we want to win every game we play, and win every series. This is the first we have lost, but we will be involved in plenty more series going forward,” Stokes said.
“It’s always disappointing being on the losing team. Looking back at when we had our chance to bat yesterday, cricket is always skill against skill.”
The England skipper credited the Indian spin troika of Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav to turn it around by sharing all the 10 wickets among them in the visitors’ second innings.