Ben Stokes Breaks Silence On Handshake Row, Decision To Bowl Harry Brook

England captain Ben Stokes, who finds himself embroiled in a bizarre 'handshake controversy' at the end of the 4th Test against India in Manchester, has defended his action. Stokes wanted Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar to shake hands on Day 5 and settle the match in a draw, as getting a result went out of picture. As the Indian duo, both of whom were cruising towards their respective hundreds, refused Stokes' offer, the England captain decided to hand the ball to Harry Brook, a player who doesn't even have the reputation of a part-timer.

Though Stokes didn't laud Jadeja and Sundar on the field when the duo got past the 100-run mark respectively, he did praise them in the press conference.

"The knock that those two played was very, very good," Stokes said after the match.

"The situation that India found themselves in there, with us opening the game slightly, that partnership was massive. You hold your hands up, they played incredibly, incredibly well. And I don't think there would've been too much more satisfaction from walking off a hundred not out, getting your team out of a tricky situation, than walking off at 80, 90 not out. That's what you've done for your team. You know, the 10 more runs or whatever it was ain't gonna change the fact that you've managed to get your team out of a very, very, very tricky situation and almost saved your team from a series defeat before the last game."

The move by Sokes was criticised by many. When Stokes was asked about the decision, he defended it with full passion. The skipper said that since a result was out of question, he wasn't willing to risk his frontline bowlers in the last few overs that were left to be bowled.

"I think we took the game as far as we could with our frontline bowlers to take it as far as we could to think like we've got a real chance of still winning this game. But as soon as it got to that point where it was the draw's inevitable here, I was never going to risk any of my frontline bowlers with the short turnaround that we have and the workload that we've got through this week and throughout the series as well. So yeah, as soon as, you know, the 15 overs or last hour was there, it was always going to be a shake hands."

"As I said, the only other person who's actually got any bowling workload into them is Harry Brook. But I did have to tell him, 'Please don't do anything stupid.' We spent a lot of time out in the field, can't have you pulling aside or doing anything different. Naturally, you'll be fatigued, even if you don't bowl. So I was just like, just get through this period. But yeah, I wasn't going to risk any of my, you know, proper bowling options in that situation when we knew what was going on," he added.

Team India head coach had quite a contrasting take on the subject. For Gambhir, the likes of Jadeja and Sundar fully deserved to get their hundreds, even if the game was heading towards a draw.

The manner in which the 4th Test has concluded has set expectations clear for the 5th and final match at the Kennington Oval. Trailing 1-2, India need to beat England in the next match at all cost if they are to end the series in a draw.

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