Stokes' outburst and a draw worse than defeat

"You want to get a Test hundred against Harry Brook? If you wanted to score a century, you should have batted like you wanted to get it!"

Exhaustion coupled with frustration can make people do funny things. In the case of England captain Ben Stokes, it made him utter these two lines at India's Ravindra Jadeja in the final hour of the riveting fourth Test in Manchester on Sunday, and inadvertently reveal what actually led to his righteous rage that soured what otherwise was a brilliant game of cricket.

Stokes said this right as he handed the ball to Brook, a part-time off-spinner, for the 139th over of India's second innings following a row with Jadeja and his partner Washington Sundar after the duo refused to accept the draw with one hour of play to go.

Jadeja and Sundar, having batted for 50 overs to ensure the draw, were unbeaten on 89 and 80 respectively and with 15 overs left in the day, were in with a chance to reach the triple-figure mark.

England were not amused by this. Having already bowled 138 overs at a stretch, it meant they had to continue their pointless struggle with India leading by 75 runs.

So, handing the ball to Brook for the first time in the match made sense as Stokes later explained after the match, "It got to that point where there was obviously only one result and there was absolutely no chance I was going to risk any of my big fast bowlers."

Stokes' post-match explanation behind bringing in Brooks is creditable enough. Unfortunately for him though, his taunt at Jadeja for having to complete his century against a part-timer was caught on the stump mic.

Firstly, this sledge was nonsensical, as Jadeja did not bring Brooks into the attack, Stokes did. England's top bowlers had already thrown everything they had at the pair but could not break their resilience.

Jadeja and Sundar forced Stokes and Co to accept a draw, which for them, is worse than a defeat.

Under coach Brendan McCullum and captain Stokes, England have adopted the Bazball approach, and have practically sworn off against draws.

Since Stokes took over as Test captain in June of 2022, England have won 16 out of their 23 home Tests, lost five and drawn only twice, including the one against India.

The previous draw had come against Australia in 2023, also in Manchester, but that was a rain-induced stalemate.

This is the first time Bazball has failed to produce a result at home, something that did not sit right with Stokes, who himself had an incredible match as an all-rounder, with a century and a five-wicket haul in the first innings.

Stokes' taunt to Jadeja about not going for a century earlier was based on the frustration of India's ultra-defensive approach to save the Test.

But what Stokes in his indignation forgot, is that for India, drawing the Test and keeping the series alive at 2-1 heading into The Oval was the main goal, and Jadeja and Sundar's hundreds were the icing on the cake. Stokes outburst at the end was nothing but misdirected anger, which he would be better served to use in the upcoming series-decider.