Twitter Reactions ASHES 2023

'Haar-jeet gaya bhad mei' - Fans react as Ben Stokes defends declaring their innings on Day 1 of first Ashes 2023 Test

Ben Stokes defended his call of declaring their innings on Day 1 of the first Test of Ashes 2023. Here's how fans reacted.

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Rohit Kumar
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Ben Stokes, England

Ben Stokes, England (Source: Twitter)

On June 20, 2023, England lost the opening Test of the ongoing Ashes series at Edgbaston by two wickets. The Australians eventually managed to emerge triumphant after exciting events throughout the course of the five days. Fans were shocked, though, when Ben Stokes chose to declare England's first innings on day one.

After taking eight wickets for 393 runs in 78 overs, they made their declaration. Joe Root was batting even with 118 runs. Therefore, many supporters pointed to that audacious and aggressive choice as the primary reason for the defeat. Nevertheless, the England captain publicly defended his choice during the press conference following the game.

‘I’m a captain who saw it as an opportunity to pounce on Australia’ – Ben Stokes

Stokes said: “I’m a captain who saw it as an opportunity to pounce on Australia. I don’t think any batter likes to go out 20 minutes before the close of play. The way in which we played, and took Australia on, actually allowed us to be able to do that. I could also turn around and say, ‘If we didn’t declare, would we have got that excitement like we did at the end of day five?’. I’m not 100 per cent sure but I’m not going to be looking back at this game as ‘what ifs’. The reality is, we just didn’t manage to get over the line this week.”

In the most match presentation ceremony, Stokes added, “That was an opportunity to pounce on Australia, no batsman likes to go out for 20 mins at the end of the day, and I sensed an opportunity to take two wickets.” The journalists also asked the Australian skipper, Pat Cummins what he would have done in a similar situation. In reply, he said: “Probably not. I’m not overly surprised (that Stokes did) but the wicket felt pretty good so I thought every run was pretty much needed in that first innings.”

Here's how fans reacted to Ben Stokes’s statements:

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