I believe it was W G Grace who said "win the toss, think about inserting the opposition, then bat". India's bowling attack looks fairly ordinary, but they have Bumrah, who definitely is not ordinary.
There are three main ways to dismiss a batsman, bowled, lbw and caught. In the first 48 balls of India's innings England bowlers would have hit the stumps just three times. If this was intentional I do not comprehend the rationale. If not, incompetence seems rife.
Stokes out being very irresponsible, trying, mostly badly, to reverse sweep nearly every ball from Jedeja. Not good captaincy.
Remarkable test match win for England. India become the first side to lose having scored five centuries during the match.
So we win the toss and field again. Apparently Stokes has fielded on all but 1 occasion when winning the toss in England. The match he decided to bat, we lost. So obviously he sticks to his preferred option
This fetish for inserting the opposition when winning the toss looks like coming back to bite us. Excellent batting surface, but first. Insert the opposition, they get 600. Wrong decision.
It certainly goes against the majority of the decisions made by other countries, but Stokes is Stokes. Live or die by the sword.
