Aakash Chopra has spoken against the notion that Ben Stokes is like Ian Botham. He commented after England lost to India by 1-4 in the five-match Test series, with England’s captain failing in all departments of the game.
The English media went nuts after Stokes took a wicket with his first ball in the series, which came in the fifth Test in Dharamsala. He bowled Rohit Sharma after the Lunch.
Chopra pointed out that Stokes didn’t do anything with the bat in the 10 innings, and his runs were equal to England’s spinner Tom Hartley.
‘The English media is comparing Ben Stokes to legendary all-rounder Ian Botham after he took a wicket. What did he do with the bat in the series? Despite scoring 70 runs in the first match, his and Tom Hartley’s series total is almost the same,” Chopra said.
England captain Stokes scored 199 runs from the 5 Tests, while Hartley accumulated 185 runs.
Chopra also slammed Jonny Bairstow, who played his 100th Test match in the series. He scored 29 and 31 across both innings in the final game but didn’t last for more than 31 balls.
“Jonny Bairstow can’t play from the crease and he doesn’t have confidence. He is not ready to read the ball and the big shots are his escape route. Whenever we saw him. it looks like that he wanted to run away from the jail,” he added.
England are 8th in the World Test Championship points table with 3 wins, 6 losses and 1 draw after 10 matches. They have a win percentage of 17.5.
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