IND vs ENG | England Want To Make A Habit Of Winning Games Under Pressure, Stamps Ben Stokes

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Following England’s close defeat against India, Ben Stokes has reckoned that the Three Lions want to make a habit of winning games in pressure situations, remaining unfazed about the series decider. He also called the loss as a ‘learning experience’ for the World T20 even in India later this year.

After winning the toss, English skipper Eoin Morgan immediately called for another run-chase in Ahmedabad, with the trend supporting the visitors. While India were jolted in the first six overs, England were pegged back by a brilliant innings from Suryakumar Yadav, who walked in ahead of Virat Kohli at No.3. That followed by Shreyas Iyer’s brief cameo ensured that India had more than handy total on board, scoring 185.

In the second innings, despite England getting themselves in a tricky position, the partnership between Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow threatened to take the game away from the hosts. However, a timely wicket of Bairstow and Shardul Thakur’s twin-wicket over ensured that there were no hiccups for the hosts.

Ben Stokes, who made a valiant effort to swing the tide, admitted that the visitors want to make a habit of winning games from pressure situations, ahead of the World T20. Despite the defeat, the all-rounder stated that it was ‘crucial’ for them to put themselves under a lot of pressure and keep going.

“That’s great for us as a team, especially with a T20 World Cup coming up because the more pressure situations we get put into as a team, the more I think we’ll benefit from it. It is a final because if we don’t win then we lose a series and we don’t want to lose series, we want to win and we want to make a habit of winning them. The more situations we get put into where we’ve got pressure on us and we keep prevailing, that’s just going to do us good,” Stokes said in the post-match press conference, reported DNA.

However, in an ideal world, the English all-rounder admitted that England would have loved to win the encounter and completed a series win. Now that is gone, Stokes said that the visitors got a lot of positives from the fourth T20I, which they lost against India.

“In an ideal world, we would have loved to have gone into the next game, having already won the series. It sounds weird saying that we got a positive out of losing. We go into the next game with a huge amount of pressure on our shoulders as a team, because whoever wins that game, wins the series,” Stokes added.

Regarding his untimely dismissal for England, Stokes showed his frustration but insisted that it is a learning experience for him, putting himself under such situations ahead of the World T20 in India. Following the series, all-rounder would also play in these conditions, for Rajasthan Royals, which would be crucial for the Three Lions, in terms of preparations.

“It’s always frustrating getting out, and even more when you feel like you’ve got the game in your hands. You’ve got to look at these things and assess them and learn from them. We’ve got the T20 World Cup coming up and we will be put in a similar position at some point in the tournament. These are all great learning experiences,” Stokes said.