IND vs ENG: U-turn on Bazball? Skipper Stokes wants England to be 'smarter in those situations'

England may have become the most attacking Test team in the world since taking on the Bazball philosophy but skipper Ben Stokes want the team to be 'smarter in those situations' when they are behind in the game. The comments, given to BBC Sport, was made one day out of the start of English summer before they take on India in the first of five Tests to kick off World Test Championship (WTC) cycle 2025-27. England would be hoping to put the young Indian side, led by Shubman Gill, under pressure in Leeds when they face off on June 20.

"It's just being smarter in those situations when it's obvious that the opposition is on top of us," he said. "We just felt like, as a team, that the area of improvement… is actually soaking up that pressure, and allowing ourselves a better opportunity to then apply the pressure back onto [the opposition] in the way that we know we can.

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"When we have lost, we probably look back on those moments [and think], 'Could we have been a lot better at slowing everything down, and understanding where we are in the position of the game to then allow us to play in that natural way that we like to go about things?' Having those reflective moments and honest conversations within the group is what can take teams to the next level," added Stokes.

Predicted Playing XIs
England (confirmed): Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (C), Jamie Smith (WK), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir

India (predicted): Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Karun Nair, Shubman Gill (C), Rishabh Pant (WK), Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj