3 reasons why Ben Stokes' captaincy is over-rated
There's a fine line between bravery and idiocy when it comes down to aggression, and Ben Stokes' England side had been walking on that thin rope in the series against India.
In the name of fearless brand of cricket, what they project, or rather brand, as "BazBall," England have faltered on many occasions of strength to seize the momentum in their side.
The batters let England down big time in this series, but if we dig deep, then it's been Stokes, the captain, whose bizarre moves are one of the reasons for the side's series loss.
One would argue that as a captain, Ben Stokes has 14 wins to his credit in 24 Tests and a win percentage of almost 58%, so it would be quite harsh to judge his leadership on the basis of one series loss, that too, in a tough tour of India.
However, despite this splendid record on his resume, the problem still lies in his tactical nuances.
In this article, we will look at some of the reasons why Stokes' captaincy is overhyped.
3 reasons why Ben Stokes' captaincy is over-rated
#3 Struggle against big teams
The majority of England's Test wins under Ben Stokes came at home with the red "Duke" cherry aiding pacers to maintain the seam movement over an extended period with its unique backward stitching.
Also, it was always the whisper of testing Stokes' captaincy against the bigger teams like Australia, South Africa, and Australia.
Against Australia in the Ashes, Stokes lost the urn, barely managing to draw the series.
And against India, the scoreline of 4-1 tells you the story about his performance as a captain.
#2 Visible tactical mistakes
As a captain, you need to be proactive on the field and use your resources astutely. But if we look at Stokes' captaincy, besides setting funky field placements, his moves have been questionable.
Not going too far back, if we look at the first three Tests in this series against India, then despite playing three front-line spinners in Tom Hartley, Rehan Ahmed, and Jack Leach, Stokes overbowled Joe Root.
The move became bizarre when Stokes decided to open the bowling with Root despite having Shoaib Bashir as the off-spin option and didn't even bring Rehan till the 60th over in the second Test at Vishakhapatnam.
#1 England's position on the WTC points table
Amidst all the hype and talk about England's revolutionary "BazBall" style of cricket under Ben Stokes' captaincy, England continue to struggle in the World Test Championship points table (currently at 5, with 21 points).
In the last cycle, despite so much noise about England's new attacking brand of cricket, they couldn't make it to the final of the tournament, which speaks a lot about Stokes' leadership skills.
He is not a bad captain, but not that great either, which is being hyped by the English media.