Need to handle all conditions: Ben Stokes

Ahmedabad: Brushing aside the incessant talk around spin-friendly pitches in India, big-hitting England all-rounder Ben Stokes has said that Test players should be proficient in handling all kinds of conditions.

Ahead of the day/night Test here starting Wednesday, Stokes wondered how the newly-refurbished Motera strip would behave but at the same time, stressed that top-flight cricketers should be able to deal with whatever they are faced with. “The thing about being a Test batsman is that you need to be able to handle all types of conditions. India is one of the places where it is a lot tougher for overseas batsmen to come and be successful, but then so too is England,” he wrote in a column for the ‘Daily Mirror’.

“And that is part of the game, the challenges and why we love it,” he said. The turning tracks in India became a talking point during the ongoing series when some former England players such as Michael Vaughan asked whether such strips were ideal for Test cricket. The series is tied at 1-1 after India’s brilliant 317-run triumph in the second Test in Chennai. Stokes’ bowling quota of just two overs in that game raised a few eyebrows but he said it was about “Don’t read too much into the fact that I didn’t bowl a huge amount in the second game, I’m sure if it was a green seamer I would have bowled a lot more overs.’’