PRESS CONFERENCE
Follow UsZak Crawley was the best batter for England across both innings of the Visakhapatnam Test - especially in the second innings, he waged a lone battle. His presence gave England the hope of a miraculous victory, but Kuldeep Yadav trapped him LBW to bring a massive dent in their hopes.
However, the dismissal wasn’t a straightforward decision after all. When Kuldeep Yadav’s flighted delivery hit the opener on his pads, the umpire had ruled it not out in the beginning, but Kuldeep managed to convince Rohit to go upstairs. In such situations, the Indian skipper normally never listens to his bowler, but this time, it was different.
The replay was clear that the ball was pitched just in line with the leg stump, but spin vision suggested that it straightened after landing as the DRS returned "hitting". The entire England squad was confused and Ben Stokes echoed the thought in the post-match press conference.
"In a game full of ifs, buts and maybes, I am not going to say that's the reason why we haven't got the result we wanted. I'm just saying my personal opinion is that the technology has gone wrong on this occasion, and I think that's fair to say," Stokes told reporters after the match.
"Technology in the game is obviously there. Everyone has an understanding of the reasons, it can never be 100% which is why we have the umpire's call. That's why it's in place. When it's not 100% as everyone says, I don't think it's unfair for someone to say, 'I think the technology has got it wrong on this occasion'. And that is my personal opinion. I will say that.
"You can't really do much with things that have been and gone. A decision has been made, and you can't really overturn a decision that has been made. That is where I stand on that,” Stokes added.
Further, the England skipper revealed that the team was hit by an unknown viral disease in the morning but credited his teammates for living through it without complaining.
“There’s a bit of a virus going around, a couple of guys woke up not feeling great. It’s not ideal, you want everyone to be feeling great but I’m proud that the guys who were feeling under the weather didn’t shy away and gave it their best.
“We had full belief in ourselves that we could chase that down. Taking on challenges like that is what we are about. In moments like this, when you have scoreboard pressure, that is when we get the best out of ourselves as individuals. Unfortunately, this time we didn’t get on the right side of the result,” the skipper added.
On Day 3, James Anderson claimed that Bazball had put fear in Indian batters’ minds and hence, they changed their normal style to play with more caution. He had also claimed that England were ready to chase down 600 and that was the confidence instilled among them.
Even though it failed to materialize in a win, Ben Stokes added that the team wanted to stay true to themselves, knowing the approach would sometimes fail to succeed.
“I think our approach is what we’re known for, the way in which we play. Regardless of the situation, we want to stay very true to ourselves. I was happy with the way we went about that chase. That’s exactly how we play cricket. It won’t always work but a loss is a loss; you don’t get any points losing by five and you don’t get less for losing by 100,” Stokes added.
