‘Fun Over Victory’: Ben Stokes, England Grilled By Critics After India Test Series Loss

The cricketing world is abuzz with reflections and analyses following England 's defeat against India in the fifth and final test of the series in Dharamshala. The British media strongly criticised the performance of England, led by Ben Stokes .

“It doesn’t always work out as you want to, but you back your best players, pick your best players … look at what we managed to do over the last two years. We ain’t, I ain’t, going to let the last two years go to waste over this series in isolation.”

Following the conclusion of the Dharamsala Test where India emphatically defeated England by an innings and 64 runs to claim the series 4-1, England's captain Stokes adopted a resolute and defiant stance in his assessment of the series.

A champion of the new Bazball approach to Test cricket, alongside head coach Brendon McCullum , Stokes remarked, “I have done a lot of India tours now. I am disappointed with my performance for the team, but write this team off, write me off at your own peril.”

Stokes also expressed skepticism towards the perceived lack of ruthlessness displayed by England as they succumbed to an all-round Indian team within just two and a half days in Dharamsala. "Ruthlessness? What is it? How does it show itself?"

“Everyone goes into the game with their best intentions, when it doesn’t pay off people say we’re not ruthless but when they do, they say we are. I don’t really understand the saying. That’s from my point of view; we try to do what we think is the best way to win the game. It can be a throwaway comment when people say we’re not ruthless enough. What does it mean,” Stokes countered.

However, former England captain Michael Vaughan viewed the team's reluctance to introspect and their apparent lack of desire to secure Test victories as symptomatic of England's deficiency in ruthlessness. England currently sits in the eighth spot in the World Test Championship standings after nine matches this cycle.

‘Fun over winning’
"The great frustration is that they have the talent to be really competitive all over the world but they have blown two big series and in this case it was because their batting failed miserably," Vaughan wrote in his column for The Telegraph.


"I worry that they are speaking a language that not all of them truly believe, which is dangerous. Positivity is good, and inspiring, but honesty is also required.

"The team message is never to doubt anything, never admit they were wrong or they could have done things differently … that does not breed an environment of ruthlessness," Vaughan said.

There were also suggestions to reassess the "cultish" adherence to the Bazball regime where players have been persistently supported despite their lackluster performances. "Of the batsmen, only Alex Lees has been dropped in two years, and even though the series was settled, Stokes and McCullum opted against giving an exploratory game to Dan Lawrence or the uncapped Gus Atkinson in Dharamsala. Their mateship knows no bounds," Simone Wilde of the UK Times wrote.

While Wilde acknowledged that it was unlikely for Stokes to single out his teammates following the resounding defeat they suffered, she emphasized the importance of considering Harry Brook's return when available. Former England skipper Alastair Cook, the last visiting captain to win a Test series in India, suggested that Jonny Bairstow , who completed his 100th Test this week, might face scrutiny after a disappointing tour. Bairstow managed to score 230 runs in 10 innings with a best of 39.

“He (Bairstow) has been one of our few successful all-format players but ultimately in this series he hasn’t scored enough runs. Once the dust has settled it will be a hard decision for the selectors,” Cook wrote in The Times UK.

Calls for abandoning the one-dimensional approach of Bazball were also made. "[Bazball] is not a one-size-fits-all approach. The recent results speak for themselves: it is not a winning formula. It seems there is a lack of responsibility and a lack of accountability … winning does matter, winning is paramount. Losing is not just a shrug of the shoulders.

“It is frustrating, but that’s where you have to be accountable. If not, the fans will start to see through that,” BBC’s Jonathan Agnew lamented.

However, despite suffering their first Test series defeat and seventh loss in 12 Tests over the last year, it hasn't signaled a complete overhaul for captain Stokes just yet. "In the face of defeat and failure, Bazball will hopefully inspire people to become better players and become even better than what we are," Stokes said.