"Great job" - Ben Stokes lauds BCCI and other stakeholders for solving Rehan Ahmed's visa issues ahead of IND vs ENG 3rd Test
England captain Ben Stokes lauded the BCCI and every other stakeholder for getting Rehan Ahmed's visa issues fixed instantly. The 32-year-old also praised Rehan for keeping himself calm amid the delay and delivering decent performances.
With the entire England team landing in Rajkot on Monday ahead of the third Test, Rehan was stopped at the airport for a couple of hours due to a single-entry visa. While the airport authorities found a short-term solution, the wrist-spinner's participation in the match was in doubt.
Speaking on Wednesday at a presser, Stokes praised everyone coming together to help them solve the issue. As quoted by India Today, he said:
"For any individual having to wait for that is always an anxious period, but thankfully, we got it through this morning, and great job from the guys at the airport for giving him his visa to get through initially, and everyone at the BCCI and the government to get the visa quickly.
"We do not have to worry anymore about those issues, we were very confident that we would get the visa for Rehan before the game started."
The 19-year-old is the second England cricketer on this tour to face the visa issues. Earlier, Shoaib Bashir was stuck at Abu Dhabi airport for a similar reason and had to return home to get it fixed.
"There was no thoughts about not playing him this week" - Ben Stokes on Rehan Ahmed
Stokes went on to claim that they were confident of the issue getting solved and having him play in Rajkot, adding:
"There were no thoughts about not playing him this week, the great thing about youth is that they just take everything in their stride. He handled a situation that could've affected quite a lot of people in a different way, very well for such a young kid. Rehan, in the Test matches that he has played, he has done very well and he has solved everything that we have asked him."
The only change England made to their XI from the second Test was replacing Shoaib Bashir with Mark Wood.