BCCI President attacks Ben Stokes and blames captaincy for England's downfall

The BCCI President Roger Binny has come up with a blunt statement on the defeat of Ben Stokes-led England National Cricket Team in the five-match Test series against India. According to the former India cricketer, the captaincy of Stokes has been the reason behind the downfall of the English team in Tests.

England National Cricket Team have been playing with a Bazball approach in Test cricket since the appointment of Ben Stokes as captain and Brendon McCullum as head coach. The Bazball approach points to the attacking and entertaining brand of cricket in the purest format of the game.

This approach brought a lot of success to England as they went on to annihilate the opposition and remained undefeated in all the Test series heading into the India tour. The Three Lions registered a statement win in the first match of the India tour to stun the hosts.

It was expected that Ben Stokes & Co. would continue their winning streak, but the Indian team proved to be a dominant force in the next three matches. The Rohit Sharma-led side hammered the English team in three back-to-back matches to thrash their hopes of a series win and took an unassailable 3-1 lead.

Following the first Test series loss for England in the Bazball regime, many former cricketers, including England greats, slammed Ben Stokes-led side and raised questions over the substantiality of Bazball against a strong opposition like India.

Now the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Roger Binny has reacted to England’s series defeat and he blamed Stokes’ captaincy for it. He mentioned how taking Indian spinners head-on in difficult situations instead of playing cautiously is not a good move.

“Well, the captaincy of Ben Stokes so he has been more aggressive, and I think that has been the (reason for their) downfall in the few Test matches,” Binny, who is here to watch the proceedings, told PTI in an exclusive chat.

“Being so aggressive and trying to take on the Indian spinners in difficult times (situations) rather than hanging around and trying to make a big score,” said Binny.

BCCI President Roger Binny Hails India Captain Rohit Sharma

The BCCI President is also very much impressed with the leadership of Rohit Sharma in the England Test series. He stated that the Indian captain has been tactically smart and was quite patient.

“Rohit Sharma again has been very tactful. You know he knew exactly what he wanted to do and he got his bowlers to do that.”

“I don’t think England changed their strategy. They went on the same attacking mode like what they did in the first Test match. But, I think, Rohit was more patient because he had the first Test in his pocket at one stage and then he let it go. He was patient enough in the next two Tests and won both.”

Binny further criticized England’s batting for facing a horrendous collapse and going from 100/1 to 218/10 very quickly in the 5th Test.

“I think England have themselves to blame for the situation they are in at the moment. I think they started well in the morning, they looked as if they would put up a fighting score.

“So far, it has been India’s day. They have been batting well also so far and I think the Test series has been very one-sided after the first Test that England won. From then onwards, the Indian team has done well and it has dominated the series.”

After bundling out England for 218 on Day 1 of the 5th Test, thanks to Ravichandran Ashwin and Kuldeep Yadav, the Indian openers came out to bat with a positive intent and stitched together a century partnership. At stumps on Day 1, the India National Cricket Team were at 135/1 in 30 overs with Rohit Sharma (52) unbeaten in the middle along with Shubman Gill (26).