England captain Ben Stokes on Sunday blamed the Edgbaston surface for his team’s 337-run loss in the second Test against India in the ongoing Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. India defeated England by 337 runs to level the five-match Test series 1-1. The third Test between the two sides will be played at Lord’s, starting on July 10.“To be honest, it probably ended up being more of a subcontinent pitch as we got deeper and deeper into the game,” Stokes told the BBC.
“There was certainly a little bit in it to start off with. I think we exposed that very, very well early on. But then just as it got deeper and deeper, it became a real tough slog for us.“Obviously with the Indian attack in the conditions they are used to, they knew sort of how to expose those conditions better than us. And that can happen sometimes. It’s nothing to be too disheartened about, you know. We can take being out-skilled.”At the post-match presentation, Stokes pointed towards two situations where England lost the match, as they conceded a huge 180-run lead to India and allowed their batters, including skipper Shubman Gill, to make gigantic scores.“Two moments — having them 200-5 and not being able to burst them open after a good start with the ball. And being 80-5. It was going to be tough to scrape it back from there. You look back at 200-5 — if we were able to burst them open quicker, things could have been different,” he said.Asked if he’s concerned about England’s bowlers struggling to fire collectively, Stokes stated, “I wouldn’t say it’s a concern. We ran in, we tried everything, we changed plans, but when a team’s on top of you — and India are a class team — it’s hard to change the momentum. Shubman Gill had an unbelievable performance.”
