INDIA TOUR OF ENGLAND, 2025
Ben Stokes backed the decision to recall Liam Dawson to the Test side © Getty
While there was no shortage of entertainment or drama during England’s narrow 22-run win over India at Lord’s, conversations about the over-rate ran rife throughout the contest as over a session’s worth of play was lost due to the pace of play. England were later docked WTC points and were fined 10% of their match fees for maintaining a slow over-rate.
Stokes accepted the charge but maintained that current over-rate regulations disproportionately penalise pace-heavy attacks. “You can’t have the same rules in Asia, where a spinner is bowling 70% of the overs, to have the same laws in New Zealand, Australia, England, where it’s going to be 70-80% seam. Because the spinner’s over takes less time than the seamer’s over. So common sense would think that you should look at maybe changing how the overrates are timed in different continents,” said Stokes speaking ahead of the fourth Test in Manchester.
Over-rate issues plagued England in the last WTC cycle too, costing them 22 points. Stokes, however, maintained that over-rate isn’t something he worries about. “Overrate 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.
“There’s a lot that actually goes out on the field. You’ve got fast bowlers bending their back consistently. Throughout the course of a game, the time of overs is going to come down because you’ve just got tired bodies. We played five days, that was our 15th day of cricket. We obviously had an injury to Bash [Bashir], a spinner, so we couldn’t turn to our spinner as much as we would have liked to on day five. So we had to throw a seam at them for pretty much the whole day. That’s obviously going to slow things down.
“I wonder if scoring rates have got anything to do with that as well. The ball’s getting hit to the boundary more often, so it’s going to take a lot longer. I think there’s just so much that influences how your over-rates can be affected, that it can’t just be as simple as, ‘this is the time, this is what you need to do’. Because you want to keep the quality of cricket as high as you possibly can,” said Stokes
All Blacks coach shaping England’s mindset
Meanwhile, Stokes credited Gilbert Enoka, the former All Blacks mental skills coach, for playing a key role in reshaping the team’s culture. “He’s come in, we’ve spent some time around the team. I think he’s been able to put into words what we want to do a lot better than what me and Baz [Brendon McCullum] would ever be able to do. I think every team who ends up being as good as they possibly can be do have some extra help come in and help put what we want to achieve into words. We’ve just given ourselves as much chance as we possibly can of kicking on to where we want to be. We felt that Gilbert was the right person to do that.
“We’re very similar [to the All Blacks] in that way of our mindset towards what we want to be doing as a team. Culture, how we want to do, how our behaviours are, training, all that kind of stuff about being as good as you possibly can be. It’s a lot better coming from someone who’s done that and been very successful in team sports like Gilbert has” said Stokes.
Stokes backs Dawson’s Test return
Liam Dawson’s selection over Jack Leach also signalled a shift in the pecking order among England’s spinners. Dawson also recently made a comeback to England’s white-ball setup and Stokes hinted that the spinner had perhaps made an impression on McCullum, who took over as all-formats coach earlier this year.
“He’s been performing really well for Hampshire for a while now. I think he’s obviously getting recalled into the white ball team as well. He showed that he can just come back in and get to work straight away. I think a big bonus is having Baz coaching both teams. We’ve obviously got Brookie [Brook] captain of the one-day team and been in this team as well.
“I’ve known Dawson for a long time, I know the cricketer he is, but I think what does go under the radar is his competitiveness. Obviously, he’s just a cricketer who gives you so much with the ball, but having someone like him down the order again, hopefully we’re not relying on his runs, that number eight or nine… He’s earned a call on all the hard work he’s done back at Hampshire and around the world in different franchise leagues and everything like that” said Stokes.
Dawson, now 35, last played a Test for England in 2017, and Bashir’s injury last week has handed him an opportunity to revive his Test career. “If you get called back into a squad after a while, regardless of how old you are, you obviously want to showcase your skills that you’ve got, regardless of how old you are. Dawson coming back in, people might look to that, those who are sort of ageing a bit maybe, knowing that it’s not the end of the road,” said Stokes speaking about Dawson’s return.
© Cricbuzz
