"It's just a number" - Ben Stokes not hyped about 100th Test match

England’s Test captain Ben Stokes feels that every Test match is as important as any other red-ball game, claiming that he doesn’t feel too special about his playing his 100th Test match tomorrow against India at the Saurashtra cricket stadium in Rajkot. His English entourage will step out for the 3rd Test with an aim to leave for Ranchi with a 2-1 lead in the 5-match series.

It will be a special day for Ben Stokes on day 1 at Rajkot even if he won’t feel like the most special person alive when he takes part in his 100th red-ball game. The left-hand batter who is playing only as a specialist batter in the series, has been among England’s best players in the series which has been nothing short of a spectacle thus far.

The 32-year-old is on his first ever red-ball tour of India since taking over the reigns of captaincy from Joe Root and paired alongside former New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum who took over as the head coach a couple of years ago. Since then, the duo have transformed the Test side with the term they coined as Bazball style of cricket.

Not just Ben Stokes the captain but the Bazball too is in its maiden tour of Indian conditions and its first implementation over here has been decent enough. While it has worked wonders for batters like Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, and Stokes himself, the likes of Johnny Bairstow and Joe Root who have been a proven batter in India, have struggled to find their rhythm and form until now. That will be something that McCullum would have addressed after the 2nd Test.

If those two batters start to click then England’s batting order will get even more lethal and Bazball will prove to be even more intensive for the Indians to handle. While that remains to be seen tomorrow, Ben Stokes feels that he is more than grateful for the opportunities he has had and that playing 100 or 200 Test matches does not make any difference.

“Every Test is just as important as the next one. Then there’s the next one, which will be 101 – it’s just one more. It’s a sign of longevity, but 99, 100 or 101 doesn’t make much difference. It’s just a number. I don’t want it to sound like I’m not thankful for the opportunities I’ve had, but with milestones, it’s not done until it’s done,” Stokes told the BBC. 

Check Out The Ben Stokes Led England Playing XI For 3rd Rajkot Test

Meanwhile, the English Cricket Board has announced England’s playing XI a day prior to the start of the 3rd Test in Rajkot. The Three Lions have made only one change as Ben Stokes’ side have brought in an extra pacer instead of their strategy of using all the spinners, as they did in the 2nd Test loss at Vizag.

Mark Wood has come in for Shoaib Bashir and that’s the only change in the England XI.

Playing XI: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes (C), Ben Foakes, Rehan Ahmed, Tom Hartley, Mark Wood and James Anderson.