Ben Stokes’ bizarre batting tactic explained by the commentary panel

Ben Stokes walked out earlier this morning with an intent to disrupt the bowlers’ rhythm, explained Mike Hussey and Isa Guha in the commentary. The left-hander, who has not had a memorable return to international cricket after a short break, tried to break the shackles on the Boxing Day morning when England were put to bat first by Aussie skipper Pat Cummins.

Stokes tried to walk down the track to the fast bowlers and shuffled laterally a lot as well. It was a bit bizarre on the eye to watch, as fans would’ve expected him to try and steady the ship with England losing three wickets in the first session. As understandable as it was, Stokes’ approach, according to the commentators wasn’t the right one.

He did exude a lot of confidence in the way he defended and looked solid all the way through. He managed to take on Nathan Lyon and smashed him down the ground for a six. It seemed like the batter was on his way to get to his first big score in the Ashes, but as it turns out, his knock came to an end in a very absurd way. He tried to cut Cameron Green over backward-point, but only managed to find Nathan Lyon’s hands.

Also Read: WATCH: Joe Root cleans up Ben Stokes in London’s version of gully cricket

“I’ve seen Ben Stokes do that before” – Isa Guha on his approach

Former English fast bowler Isa Guha mentioned that she had seen the cricketer try to implement this strategy of moving around the crease before. It is something that he has done on a lot of occasions in the past, according to Guha, who added that not playing cricket in recent times hasn’t helped his cause.

“It’s a method I’ve seen from him (Ben Stokes) previously in England. I’ve seen him shift around. He hadn’t played any competitive cricket for a long time coming into The Gabba Test and you just got the sense he was trying to spend some time in the middle. You can do all the nets you want, but he’s just trying to some rhythm against high-quality bowlers,” Guha said.

Mike Hussey, on the other hand, was disappointed by the fact that he got out trying to play an aggressive shot in such tough circumstances for the side. He felt the player should’ve tried to do something more cautious to keep the team in the hunt.