Milestone man taking it easy ahead of third Test

PTI

Rajkot, February 14

England captain Ben Stokes tried hard to be self-effacing on the eve of his 100th Test appearance, saying “milestones are what they are” but he is looking forward to the “theatre” that would come with playing the marquee game against a star-studded India.

Stokes will become the 16th England player to appear in 100 Tests when he will lead the side in their third Test against India here tomorrow. In a pre-match press conference, the dashing big-hitter tried his best to downplay the hype around his achievement.

“Milestones are what they are. I’ve always enjoyed playing against India because of the contest, the theatre it brings,” he said.

Stokes said his mind is focused on decoding the conditions and having a solid strategy in place for the crucial game.

“You look down and there’s a few cracks that meet up. Only time will tell if they will come into it. (I) don’t want to have too many preconceived ideas about pitches, but you do have to have some sort of idea which informs the XI you pick,” he said.

India saw their fortunes take a turn for the better in Vizag thanks to a superlative effort by pacer Jasprit Bumrah, who snared nine wickets on a sporting track.

Asked if England have any special plans in place for the bowler, Stokes said: “No, not really. He is an unbelievable bowler. He’s proven that for a very long time and has performed really well in the two games. I think everyone has to go their own way of not trying to deal with Bumrah but we do have to score runs off him as well and that’s what we’ll try to do,” he said.

On how he would use his bowlers in the match, Stokes said they should only target getting wickets.

“...whenever you’ve got the ball think about taking a wicket every ball...Obviously having an extra seamer this week will definitely allow us to use Woody’s (Mark Wood) skillset in a different way to the first game when he was the only seamer. The way in which Jimmy (Anderson) bowled last week, he showed his class and that he can do it anywhere in the world regardless of the conditions,” he said.

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