After England’s two-wicket defeat to Australia in the first Ashes 2023 Test at Edgbaston, Ben Stokes defended his decision to declare the first innings at 393 for 8.
Joe Root was unbeaten on 118 and, along with Ollie Robinson, had just taken 20 runs off a single Nathan Lyon over when Stokes called his batters in on the first evening, leaving England 20 minutes to bowl against Australia’s openers.
Usman Khawaja and David Warner survived two overs each from Robinson and Stuart Broad to complete the first day on 14 for 0, with Khawaja going on to reach 141 in the first innings.
The media scrutinised Stokes’ decision, prompting former England captains to state that they would not have declared under the same circumstances. His declaration was also questioned again in light of England’s narrow defeat late on the final evening.
Speaking on the BBC’s Test Match Special, former England captain Michael Vaughan said he would “guarantee” that Stokes would not make the same declaration in the second Test if the circumstances arose.
“Those 30 or 40 runs…” Vaughan said. “If you’d have asked Ben Stokes this morning, ‘Would you have liked Joe to have got another 30 on that day one, you’ve now got them in the bank?’ Of course (he would).
“I will guarantee at Lord’s, if they bat first and they’re 393 for 8 with 20 minutes to go, I will guarantee that they’ll carry on batting… not with Joe Root 118 not out.”
But at his press conference, Stokes said: “If we were in the same position? Yeah. I would like to be 398 for 6 (sic) with 20 minutes left. That would be great.
“I could also turn it around and say, ‘if we didn’t declare, would we have got the excitement that we did at the end of day five?’ I’m not a hundred per cent sure, but I’m not going to be looking back on this game as ‘what ifs’… the reality is, we just didn’t manage to get over the line.”
Australia’s captain Pat Cummins,said he would “probably not” have declared in the same circumstances.
“I wasn’t overly surprised,” Cummins said, “But the wicket felt pretty good, so I thought every run was pretty much needed in that first innings.”
Stokes stated that he would not alter his bold captaincy style simply because of the opposition and the nature of the Ashes series, and that he had sensed “an opportunity to pounce” on Warner and Khawaja.
“I thought that was a time to pounce,” Stokes said at the presentation. “I am not going to change the way I have gone about my cricket because it is the Ashes.
“Who knows? We could have got an extra 40 runs or lost two wickets in two balls. I am not a captain who gets by on what ifs.
“We saw it as an opportunity to pounce on Australia and really start day two on top.”
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