Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar came down hard on Ben Stokes for throwing a fit towards the end of Day 5 of IND vs ENG 4th Test after Jadeja and Sundar refused to shake his hands for a draw prematurely. The incident occurred towards the last hour of play when a draw was inevitable but both the Indian batters were nearing well-deserved hundreds. Subsequently, there was heated exchange between Stokes and Jadeja over the latter refusing the offer, with Brook, Duckett and Crawley getting involved too.
Manjrekar slams Ben Stokes, Trott for childish behaviour
Speaking on JioHotstar, Trott claimed that had India offered the handshake for a draw to England, Ben Stokes would have accepted promptly as the team did not keep personal milestones in mind. To this, Manjrekar responded sharply, dubbing it as a “difference in culture” which could only be imagined. Further, he slammed the England captain for showing grumpiness and behaving like a spoiled child instead of handling matters maturely.
Trott – “I don’t know, but you could tell by the way that Ben Stokes has reacted that they, if they were in the same seat, they probably would have shook the Indian captain’s hand if it was offered – if Shubman Gill went up to the English batsman and they were in the same position. They would have walked off.“
Manjrekar’s response – “Jonathan Trott is confident that Ben Stokes in that position would have called his team off, now that is a difference in culture. But we don’t know because we’re just imagining that to happen. But we have to take Jonathan’s word for it, so it’s a difference in culture. Okay, fine, he’s unhappy that the players haven’t walked off, he’ll have to manage his overs carefully with main bowlers already exhausted from bowling long spells whole day. But throwing lollipops in the air and showing a little bit of grumpiness out there, that was Ben Stokes behaving like a spoiled kid.”
Further, Manjrekar said that while he understood Stokes being surprised by India’s decision to continue, the England captain’s greivence of Jadeja going on to score a hundred without facing their main bowlers could have been handled better. He added that everything couldn’t possibly go as per England’s wishes.
“I can understand him being surprised India wanted to continue. That was his question: ‘If you wanted a hundred against Harry Brook, why not get it against the main bowlers?’ And that was his grievance. But everything won’t go as per your wishes – he should’ve handled that better. It was Ben, the hero, the champion that I admire, on that occasion behaving like a spoiled kid,” Manjrekar concluded.
