Ben Stokes defended his decision. (ECB Twitter)
Birmingham: Australia defeated England in a thrilling match in the first match of the Ashes Series-2023. After this victory, England captain Ben Stokes is on the target of critics. Stokes declared England’s first innings at 393 for the loss of eight wickets on the first day of the first Test at Edgbaston. For this reason, Stokes is being criticized. Critics say that Stokes should not have declared the innings on the first day. Now Stokes has kept his point on this and told why he did this.
The match played between England and Australia was very exciting. Australia got a target of 281 runs to win. By the time Usman Khawaja was at the crease on the last day of the match, Australia’s victory seemed certain. But Stokes brought England back into the match by dismissing Khawaja. Even then England could not win as captain Pat Cummins scored an unbeaten 44 to give Australia a two-wicket win.
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Told this reason
Stokes told after the match why he declared the innings on the first day. Stokes says that he wanted to put pressure on Australia. He said that he sees this as an opportunity to put pressure on Australia. The English captain said that by declaring the innings on 390 runs, he wanted to send a message to Australia that he wanted to put them under pressure.
🗣️: I am very proud of my team. We took it till Day 5.
| England’s skipper @benstokes38 reflects on a narrow defeat in a thrilling first test. #SonySportsNetwork #TheAshes #RivalsForever #ENGvAUS #BenStokes pic.twitter.com/A3HVKCVNB6
— Sony Sports Network (@SonySportsNetwk) June 21, 2023
A final day thriller to kick off the series 🏏
#ENGvAUS #Ashes pic.twitter.com/EuAk2CUeWC
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) June 21, 2023
Stokes said that if he had not declared, how exciting would have been the ending of this match? He said that he simply could not cross the victory line. Stokes said that many such things happen in a five-day Test match, which later thinking that if this had happened, we would have won the match, but he does not want to see things in this way.
“We’ve played some really exciting cricket & pushed the game hard!”@Root66 reflects on a thrilling five days at @edgbaston
#ENGvAUS #Ashes pic.twitter.com/DNyO9ao5Bg
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) June 20, 2023
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the match was like this
In response to England’s first innings, Australia could only score 386 runs in their first innings. For him, Khawaja’s bat was also in this innings. Khawaja had scored 141 runs. After this England were bundled out for 273 runs in their second innings and then gave a target of 281 runs to Australia. Khawaja scored 65 runs for Australia in the second innings.
