Ben Stokes gave a frank response to the idea of introducing substitutions in cricket after the heroism of Chris Woakes at the end of the fifth test between England and India.
Woakes appeared as Angleterre n ° 11 on the last day at the oval, with his left arm in a scarf after having dislocated his shoulder to run a ball on the border on Thursday. He groaned in pain as he was running between the counters in order to help Gus Atkinson on the winning line, but England fell short, losing an exciting six-point match while the series ended with a 2-2 draw.
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Woakes was replaced on the field throughout the match, but the laws of the game do not allow the replacement player to beat or bowl. This meant that England could not add a new striker to their range and had been forced or play with an injured player or with only 10.
And despite the Woakes who potentially caused themselves to damage by bringing on the playground, the captain of England Stokes – who missed the fifth test with his own shoulder injury – does not like the idea of submarines in cricket.
“I don’t see that it is one thing,” he said. “Sorry for that, but if someone is injured, difficult.”
Chris Woakes, with his arm in a scarf, heads for Bat (Ben Whitley / PA) (Pa Wire)
Stokes spoke on the subject last week, suggesting that the idea was “absolutely ridiculous” and that there would just be too many loopholes “which could be exploited to change a game.
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“I could have been there with a painful shoulder [saying] “I will try, I hope I will come, but if I don’t do it, then someone enters”. [Then] You select a tactically team and I think you could handle it. The injury excluded me from this match.
“Maybe if we had this option [of subs]I could have said, “I know it is not worth it, but if I go down, someone can come”. I couldn’t risk that. If I go down into the game, it ruins the composition of the team. I am always strongly against. It’s just SOD’s law, it happened a week after I said it. “”
On Woake’s decision to get into the fire line, Stokes added: “Incredible, yes, but that was never going to be a question. To go there, run between the counters, but we had guys, Rishabh [Pant]broken foot, bash [Shoaib Bashir] With a broken finger, and Chris comes out with a recently dislocated shoulder. This shows how much energy and efforts have been devoted to this series. »»
