As soon as Stuart Broad dismissed Alex Carey, crowd at the Oval erupted in joy as England levelled the Ashes series 2-2 keeping Australia at bay. It remained a dream for Australia to win a Test series in England since 2001. Broad also bid adieu to Test cricket with this series even as England are being praised for sticking to their Bazball approach with the bat despite being 0-2 down in the series at one stage.
Perhaps, many feel they would’ve won the series had rain stayed away on the final day of the Manchester Test. Notably, England will not be playing any Test match for the rest of the year and will feature in a lot of white-ball cricket including ODI World Cup. Their next assignment is India tour where the Ben Stokes-led side will feature in five-match Test series.
India is another country where the visiting teams are tested to the hilt and the home side has not lost a Test series at home since 2012. England, led by Alastair Cook, was the last team to beat India at home. There is very much excitement around the brand of cricket England are playing at the moment and it remains to be seen if it will work in India on the rank turners.
After the end of fifth Ashes Test, when Ben Stokes was asked about the same, the England Test skipper came up with an interesting and sarcastic response highlighting that not many felt that the approach would work against the teams like South Africa, Australia as well but it eventually did. “When we beat New Zealand 3-0, it was we couldn’t do it against South Africa then couldn’t do it against Pakistan then couldn’t do it against Australia so who knows we can’t do it against India, only time will tell (smiles),” he said while addressing reporters.