'Stump mic comments don’t reflect well on Stokes' team'

Former England cricketer Mark Ramprakash has shown his support to Indian batters Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar and said the stump microphone and the words that came out from the English side do not reflect well on Ben Stokes’ team. Ramprakash was referring to the incident that took place in the last 30 minutes of the Manchester Test between the home side and India.

“The stump microphone and words don’t reflect well on Ben Stokes’ team, who, let’s be fair, are doing a fantastic job of reinvigorating Test cricket. They are playing wonderfully well. The cricket has been on such high class that it is a shame to dwell on it,” said Ramprakash to Sky Sports.

The Test at Old Trafford, which seemed to be heading towards an uneventful draw, took a u-turn quickly after England skipper Stokes went to the Indian batters — Jadeja and Sundar — and offered his hand to call an end to the match before the last hour’s play was to start. But with Jadeja and Sundar batting on 89 and 80, the Indians didn’t take the offer from Stokes and chose to continue batting.

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Shortly after this drama, Jadeja scored his century as Stokes resorted to bowling loopy deliveries to him through Harry Brook. Jadeja slammed a six down the ground to score his 2nd Test century. Sundar, too, reached his maiden century as India finally agreed to end the hard-fought match in a draw.

A statement from Stokes was caught on the stump mic as he said, “Jaddu, do you want to get a Test 100 against Brook & Duckett?” Jadeja responded to the English skipper’s comment and said, “What do you want me to do, just walk off?” Zak Crawley, who stood close to the crease, chipped in, saying: “You can, just shake your hand.”

Ramprakash questioned whether the English batters would have continued had they been batting on 90 in a similar situation. “You have to wonder if England had a player on 90 not out, would we have continued. We hear about England players being very proud on being on the honour boards at Lord’s and other grounds because those milestones are huge achievements. I can understand where India were coming from,” he said.

“I think Ben was possibly a bit premature going up (to the Indian batters) in the way he did. It has to be agreed by the opposition captain,” added Ramprakash.

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“India had one player, Washington Sundar, who hadn’t got a hundred before and I know that England side like to not think about milestones but for that player, he may never get there again. It was quite a big moment for him. And equally for Jadeja to try and get another Test hundred. They kind of earned the right to stay on, I suppose, from their point of view,” he said.

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