“In the Face of an Indian B Team: Brad Haddin and Tim Paine Launch an Assault on England Captain Ben Stokes”

Ben Stokes, the captain of England, came under fire from former Australian cricketers Brad Haddin and Tim Paine for saying that the 1-3 scoreline did not accurately represent how tight the five-match series had been.

India won the fourth test by five wickets, giving them an unbeatable 3-1 lead. In Hyderabad, England won the first test by a margin of 28 runs. In response, India won both the second and third tests, scoring 106 and 434 runs, respectively, at Visakhapatnam and Rajkot.

Brad Haddin said that India is playing the series without their best players while applauding Stokes for organizing his young spinners.

Didn’t that sound like a sledge with a thin veil? Ben Stokes has been outstanding strategically in this series; you can’t criticize him. Haddin said to Around the Wicket, ” England has a very young spin attack in difficult conditions in the sub-continent, but young Rehan Ahmed, Tom Hartley, and Shoaib Bashir have been fantastic, and Ben Stokes deserves a lot of credit for that.”

“However, he has been playing against the Indian B squad since Shami and Kohli aren’t playing, Bumrah was rested during the most recent Test, KL Rahul isn’t playing, and Rishabh Pant is still recovering from his injury. Even if they are not their best side, the fact that certain well-known players are entering the next phase of Indian cricket merely serves to highlight the sport’s enormous depth. Leading the way is Jaiswal; the youthful Jurel was outstanding in the last Test as well. India seems to be quite powerful, then.

India is missing players like Mohammed Shami, who is recuperating from an injury, and Virat Kohli, who took time off to be with his family for the birth of his second child. In place of some of the elders, young people like Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, and Yashasvi Jaiswal stepped forward.

Despite winning the first Test, Paine’s Australian team lost the 2020–21 Border-Gavsakat series 1-2, thus he remarked he knew a thing or two about losing against an Indian team without stars.

“I completely agree with him, and I have experienced what it’s like to lose to an Indian B squad. Regretfully, that occurred in our territory. Indeed, there were several well-known names for India, which should have aided the English. I like how England is approaching the game, and I genuinely enjoy seeing them play. I like seeing them fail. Please understand that they are thrilling and engaging. For Test cricket, they have been,” Paine continued.