With the Shubman Gill-led Indian team eking out a draw against hosts England on the final day of the Manchester Test, as Gill, Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar hit centuries, the fourth Test of the Anderson-Tendulkar series saw plenty of drama. With one hour remaining, England skipper Ben Stokes approached Jadeja and Sundar, offering a handshake to signify a draw. However, the two Indian batsmen refused, forcing the match into the mandatory last 15 overs. This led to a verbal spat between Stokes and his teammates targeting Jadeja and Sundar, but both Indian batsmen would complete their centuries before agreeing to the draw five overs later.
Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar termed England captain Ben Stokes a “spoiled kid” over the incident, believing the England captain could have “handled things better.”
“Okay fine, he’s unhappy that the players haven’t walked off, he’ll have to manage his overs carefully with the main bowlers already exhausted from bowling long spells the whole day. But throwing lollipops in the air and showing a bit of grumpiness out there, that was Ben Stokes behaving like a spoiled kid. I can understand him being surprised that India wanted to continue… but everything won’t go as per your wishes, he should’ve handled that better. It was Ben, the hero, the champion that I admire, on that occasion behaving like a spoiled kid,” Manjrekar said during the post-match show on JioHotstar.
Jadeja and Sundar stitched together an unbeaten 203-run partnership for the fifth wicket, keeping India’s hopes alive in the series, with England leading 2-1 with one Test remaining. It was Jadeja’s fifth Test hundred, while Sundar scored his maiden Test century with a knock of 101 runs on Sunday.
Former England cricketer Jonathan Trott believes that if England were in the same situation as the Indian batsmen, they would have walked off after being offered the draw at the start of the last hour.
“Common practice in England, and Ben Stokes’ mentality is that there are no personal milestones. If you’re offered to end the game earlier, it’s taken. In his (Stokes’) mind, the game’s done. I don’t think England would have had personal milestones on their mind—that’s just my view. Maybe if somebody was close to a maiden century, it would have been a bit different. You could tell by Ben Stokes’ reaction that if they were in the same position, they probably would’ve shaken the Indian captain’s hand if offered—if Shubman Gill had approached the English batsmen in the same scenario, they would’ve walked off. That’s what Test cricket’s about. It’s played hard, it’s played fair, but there’s also a code and an ethos that the game is played with equal respect for each other,” Trott told JioHotstar.
Stokes defended his offer, stating it was a decision made to protect his frontline bowlers.
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“We were willing to take it as far as we possibly could and throw everything at them, but it got to that point where there was only one result left on the table. I wasn’t going to risk any of my frontline bowlers in a situation like that, especially with a quick turnaround,” Stokes told the BBC.
