England skipper Ben Stokes feels “absolutely ridiculous” to have a conversation on whether teams should be allowed replacement players mid-way through a game in case of a major injury. This came after Indian wicket-keeper batter Rishab Pant fractured his toe during the first innings of the Manchester Test.
“I think it’s absolutely ridiculous that there’s a conversation around an injury replacement,” Stokes said during the post-match press conference of the fourth Test, where India managed to draw the game with gritty knocks from KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar at Old Trafford on Sunday.
“I think that there would just be too many loopholes for teams to be able to go through. You pick your 11 for a game; injuries are part of the game. I completely understand the concussion replacement: player welfare, player safety. But I think the conversation should just honestly stop around injury replacements because if you stick me in an MRI scanner, I could get someone else in straightaway,” he added.
“If you stick anyone else with an MRI scanner, a bowler is going to show, ‘Oh yeah, you’ve got a bit of inflammation around your knee. Oh sweet, we can get another fresh bowler in’. I just think that conversation should be shut down and stopped,” said Stokes.
As per the existing rules, teams can opt for a replacement player in case of concussion, but if there any other external injuries like in the case of Pant fracturing the toe, replacement is not allowed.
India head coach Gautam Gambhir had different thoughts from Stokes and said he is all for the replacement. “Absolutely, I’m all for it,” Gambhir said after the game. “If the umpires and the match referee sees and feels that is a major injury, I think it’s very important. It’s very important to have this rule where you can get a substitute, that is, if it’s (the injury) very visible.
“There’s nothing wrong in doing that, especially in a series like this where it’s been such a closely-fought series in the previous three Test matches. Imagine if we would’ve had to play with 10 men against 11. How unfortunate would this be for us,” added Gambhir.
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Earlier, Former England captain Michael Vaughan also called for an adjustment in the substitution rule. “I don’t like the fact that we’ve got four days left in the game, four days of action in what has been an incredible series where we are going to have 10 versus 11,” Vaughan had said to BBC Sports.
“I prefer that you’d have a sub. You know, once they brought in concussion subs, I was crying out, saying, ‘Well, just have substitutions then in the first innings of a game.’ That would be my stepping point. If it happens in the second innings, I feel that team might kind of break the rules or indulge in a bit of skullduggery. But if it’s clear and obvious when someone breaks a hand or a foot or ruptures a calf it’s so evident that someone is in real pain and can’t carry on. I think it’s very clear to me: you should be allowed a sub,” said Vaughan.
