England captain Ben Stokes has sent a warning to India, saying that his side won’t purposely go out to have a sledging battle with the visitors, but won’t back down from a fight either. The series saw some heated moments between both camps during the Lord’s Test as India captain Shubman Gill had a go at the England openers, Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett.
This would spark the game into life as we saw an altercation between Duckett and Mohammed Siraj, which had the Indian pacer fined. On Day 5, Jofra Archer had an animated send-off for Rishabh Pant and Brydon Carse and Ravindra Jadeja had a run-in as well. Speaking at the press conference on the eve of the fourth Test, Stokes said that he feels that both teams don’t go out to have a sledging war on the field and there are going to be moments that would heat up a series.
The England skipper said that both teams are under pressure and there will be such moments and some heat during the matches.
“I don’t think it’s one of those things where we’re going to necessarily just go out and start at it. I don’t think either teams, you know, really look to do that. I think there’s just always going to be a moment in a Test series where something does heat up, it’s a massive series.”
“There’s a lot of pressure on both teams to go out and perform. So, look the environment when you’re out there. Obviously, there’s gonna be some moments and some heat showing. Obviously, that night when Zak and Ben had to go out just sort of started it off and we had the advantage of bowling last in a Test match to win. So we just threw everything that we possibly could at India, not only with our skills but also with their energy in the field as well,” said Stokes.
