Stokes remains defiant as England collapse to 434-run defeat in Rajkot

England captain Ben Stokes insisted that his team’s aggressive tactics will not be abandoned any time soon even through they crashed to a 434-run defeat in the third Test, handing India a 2-1 series lead.

England looked determined to take the attack to India, buoyed by the magical win in the first Test. But all the bravado got buried in the heat of Rajkot as Stokes’ side were blow away for just 122.

Despite the heavy defeat, Stokes said his team will not move away from their style of all-out attacking cricket.

“Everyone’s got a perception and opinion about things, the people in the dressing room is what matters to us,” Stokes said when asked is the England team had crossed over from attacking to reckless cricket. “One-two down in the series and a great opportunity for us to come back and win the series. We leave this game behind and we know we have to win the next two games to win the series.”

A target of 557 was excessive to the point of being ridiculous. The only issue of interest was how long England would bat. Unfortunately, they did not even last half a day.

England openers Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley have been rock solid at the top but a disastrous run out of first-innings hero Duckett extinguished any hopes of thwarting India’s opening bowlers.

Jasprit Bumrah then had Crawley lbw to open the floodgates. Ravindra Jadeja (5-41) ran through the middle order, making the most of a bone dry surface to have Ollie Pope caught at slip before trapping Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root lbw. When Rehan Ahmed tried to take on Kuldeep Yadav and hit a long ball to Mohammad Siraj at the fence, England were 50-7 and facing the prospect of a 500-run defeat.

Tom Hartley (16) and Mark Wood (33) hit a few confident shots before Jadeja wrapped up the innings by getting the latter caught at long off to dismiss England for 122 and complete India’s biggest Test win by runs.

Earlier, Shubman Gill looked like he too would reach three figures but a mix-up with nightwatchman Yadav saw him run out nine short of his ton. Overnight centurion Yashasvi Jaiswal came out to bat again, having retired hurt earlier, and in the company of debutant Sarfaraz Khan, went into overdrive. Jaiswal matched the record of Wasim Akram for the most maximums in a Test outing – 12 – as he completed his double ton (214 not out) in a second innings total of 430-4 declared.