Home
England captain Ben Stokes hit back at the International Cricket Council (ICC) for docking his side of two points on the World Test Championship (WTC) standings. The Three Lions recorded a hard-fought 22-run victory over the Men in Blue last week at Lord's, however their celebrations were cut-short as the team wasn't only penalized of two WTC points, but were also fined 10 per cent of their match fees for maintaining a slow over-rate during the match.
Stokes, who was adjudged as the Player of the Match at Lord's for a brilliant all-round performance, believes that rules should be different for Asian and SENA countries as spinners can bowl overs quickly to maintain a stable over-rate in Asia while the same cannot happen in SENA conditions.
Stokes expressed his disappointment over his side's penalization
"Over rate isn't something that I worry about, but that's not saying that I purposely slow things down. I do understand the frustration around it, but I honestly think there needs to be a real hard look at how it's structured. You can't have the same rules in Asia, where spin is bowling 70 per cent of the overs, to have the same laws in New Zealand, Australia, England, where it's going to be 70-80 per cent seam bowling," Stokes said during the pre-match press-conference.
"Because a spinner's over takes less time than a seamer's over. So common sense would think that you should look at maybe changing how the over rates are timed in different continents. I think as well, the over rates obviously have gone down over the course of quite a few years now. There are times in games where it's all on the line, and you won't just throw the ball to a spinner to get your overs round. You're not playing an international game where you're just trying to get your over rate back. I don't think people want to come and watch that," he added.
ALSO READ: Big news: Shubman Gill confirms star pacer to be ruled out of Manchester Test due to injury
Getting penalized of 2 points saw Ben Stokes & Co. lose the second spot on the WTC table and slip down to the third place behind Sri Lanka. They currently have 22 points while India are fourth with 12 points under their belt so far. It will be interesting to see how the standings will look like once the series between the two teams concludes.
Meanwhile, India have suffered a major blow even before the beginning of the fourth Test as star pacer Akash Deep has been ruled out due to a groin niggle that he picked up during the match at Lord's. It remains to be seen which bowler will take his place in the playing XI for Manchester Test. On the other hand, England made a big change to their playing XI for the upcoming match with veteran all-rounder Liam Dawson replacing Shoaib Bashir and returning to the team after 8 years of absence.
ADVERTISEMENT
