‘Stokes wanted to promote me to hit winning runs against India’ Anderson
LONDON: England veteran James Anderson revealed the incident from the hosts’ locker room in the middle of the Edgbaston Test against India and claimed he was asked by skipper Ben Stokes to score the winning runs for the team.
With England closing in on the record target on the final day of the rescheduled Test, Anderson revealed that discussions were taking place over who would bat next, with Stokes, usually England’s No. 6, suggesting that others in the locker room seize the opportunity to hit the winning runs.
“Because a new ball was coming, they thought, ‘Let’s try to finish it before the new ball. So if we miss a wicket, we’ll send Broady out and he can literally try to hit every ball for six.’ Between 67 and 75 overs or something like that. So the deeper we went, I think there were about 20 races left, Broady was like, ‘Okay, I’m ready, someone else can come in later,’” Anderson revealed.
“Then Stokesy came up to me and said, ‘You’ve never had the winning runs. So if we need four to win, and [Ravindra] Jadeja bowling, for example, do you feel like going in and getting the winning runs? I felt really uncomfortable with that. I thought that was a bit too piss-takey. So I thought, ‘I’m not sure I’m comfortable with that,'” he further stated.
The veteran pacemaker later revealed that after this incident no one in the locker room had come close to going in and finishing the job on No. 6, as Sam Billings was the last batsman to reject Stokes’ idea of taking the opportunity to score runs. winners.
“Then he goes to Sam Billings who was batting at seven.
‘It’s a great opportunity to get the winning runs in a Test match.’ And again, he said, ‘No, no, no, you’re next, you’re the captain to go to.’ So we finished, there were 20 races left, Stuart Broad had decided he wasn’t going to come in, so he took his protections off,” revealed Anderson.
“Sam Billings didn’t have the pads on. I wouldn’t wear the pads. And Ben Stokes didn’t put on sanitary pads either. So we had no one in the last 20 races of that game. That’s how relaxed everyone was,” he concluded.
It is pertinent to mention here that England, in the end, did not need a number 6 as they defeated India by seven wickets thanks to an astonishing undefeated partnership between Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow.
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