England captain Ben Stokes wasn’t in the best of moods after the hosts were soundly defeated by India in the second test match at Edgbaston by 336 runs on Sunday. The visitors achieved that feat without their premier pacer Jasprit Bumrah, who captain Shubman Gill confirmed will return to the playing XI at lord’s for the third Test, starting on July 10.
When asked about facing Bumrah at Lord’s, however, Stokes had a curt reply. “I thought I’d get through a press conference without being asked about Jasprit Bumrah. We play against each other so often you know what you will be faced with so you put it into practise in training,” he said said at the post-match press conference.
“Try to do what you can with the coaches and the sidearms, going wide on the crease, trying to give you practise like their bowling lineup. It’s always tough to replicate something that will come down at you in a game,” he added.
The England skipper also did not reveal if pacer Jofra Archer will make it to the team at Lord’s.
“Again, it’ll be a decision that we have to make seeing how everyone pull up. We’ve had him here this week to get around the group and build him up with his workloads. Everyone’s in consideration for the game at Lord’s,” Stokes said.
“We’ve obviously had some unbelievable wins and some bad defeats. I feel I’m quite good and the team is quite good at staying level throughout those ups and downs. We knew coming into the series it wasn’t going to be easy. Disappointed with the loss here as it would have been great to carry the momentum over from the first game but we don’t find ourselves sitting here like that. We have to wipe this one under the carpet as quickly as we can because Lord’s day one will be coming round pretty quickly,” he added.
