After England’s spectacular thrashing in Rajkot, excuses and defenses for Ben Stokes and Co. have arrived. Defense of ‘Bazball’ after a record-making 434-run loss, Ben Duckett’s comments on Yashasvi Jaiswal‘s knock, or Joe Root’s bizarre dismissal, English fans and media have tried to find excuses for everything that went wrong for the visitors in Rajkot.
However, amid all these noises, Naseer Hussain has emerged as the voice of reason. In his column for the Daily Mail, the former England skipper rubbished a claim by a fan that the toss has been the deciding factor in each of the three India vs England Tests.
In the mailbag sent by fans, a question read: The story of the first three Tests was – win toss, bat first, win the match. Is it time to get rid of the toss and let the away side decide what to do?
Naseer Hussain decided to have none of this, praising the Indian pitches and criticizing the England team for not doing the basics of the game correctly. He replied:
“I’m not a massive fan of that. In the first Test England had a deficit of 190 and still managed to win.
The toss has been important but I don’t think it’s been pivotal in the results. It’s been the side who have done the basics of the game best who have won.
This series has been played on three excellent pitches so far.“
Editors pick
