“Absolutely love watching him play…”: England skipper Stokes’ admiration for Rishabh Pant

Birmingham [UK], July 1 (ANI): Ahead of the second Test against India, England skipper Ben Stokes expressed his admiration for swashbuckling Indian wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant, saying that “absolutely loves watching him play".

The second Test between both sides will take place from Wednesday onwards. During the first Leeds Test, Rishabh broke plenty of records with his twin centuries, knocks of 134 and 118. However, these knocks went in vain as England chased down 371 set by India with five wickets in hand.

Speaking ahead of the match in the pre-match presser, Stokes said about Pant, “I absolutely love watching Rishabh Pant play cricket, I love the way he takes it on, in all formats of the game."

“He has got a bit of stick in his time, but that type of talent, when you let that type of talent be free, that is what can happen, you know, last week. But yeah, it is the sort of thing when you look back on last week and credit to him, two 100s in the game, we know we are going to get our chances with the way that Rishabh plays. So yeah, it is one of them, on a different day it could have looked a little bit different if one of those had gone straight off into a hand."

“But yeah, very dangerous player, we know what he brings to the Indian team, but I really enjoy watching Rishabh play cricket," he concluded.

On whether India’s strategy to have their pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah play just three Tests and not reveal which ones affects England’s planning and strategies, Stokes replied, “That is India’s problem to deal with. I am the captain of England. Let India decide what they want to do and what they want to say publicly."

England playing XI for second Test against India: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jamie Smith (wk), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir. (ANI)

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