New Delhi: England lost the second Test of the series to India by an enormous 336 runs at Edgbaston with their captain Ben Stokes only fuelling the criticism by raising eyebrows and referring to the pitch at Birmingham as a subcontinental pitch. The remark was made by Stokes in the post-match presentation and it did not please many fans a lot who accused the English skipper of looking at the loss as an excuse. “To be honest it’s probably ended up being more of a subcontinent pitch as it got deeper and deeper into the game. There was certainly a little bit in it to start off with and I think we exposed that very very well early on” Stokes had said. “Then just as it sort of got deeper and deeper it just became a real tough slug for us and obviously with the Indian attack and the conditions that they’re used to they were sort of used to and knew sort of how to expose those conditions just sort of a little bit better than us and that can happen sometimes. But yeah it’s nothing to be too disheartened about. We can take being out-skilled and we’ve certainly been out-skilled this week” said Stokes. Sitanshu Kotak batting coach of India added to the comment by Ben Stokes during a media conference prior to the third Test match at the world famous Lord’s in London. Kotak resolutely said the Indian bowlers used the conditions intelligently and that helped the team in achieving the first-ever win in the stadium by the country. Kotaks savage response to Stokes As was noted by Kotak the ball was still moving on Day 5 at Edgbaston unlike pitches that are meant to accustom to the sub-continental climate. “Personally it didnt look like a subcontinental wicket to me. Whenever our bowlers bowled the ball moved. Even in the second innings the ball was moving even after 40 overs” said Kotak. “On the last day maybe the ball was turning a little. When you prepare such a hard wicket with grass it wont create rough but it will have footmarks which help with the turn. I think they tried to make a hard batting wicket.” Sharp turn off the surface in the delayed first session of final day was taken by Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar who removed captain Stokes in the last over before the Lunch. The sacking gave India a very big boost as the team mopped up the match in the following session.
