England skipper Ben Stokes is slowly turning into a genius of a captain. Not only Stokes is fearless and bold but he is also keeping everyone on their toes with his superb leadership kills. Although Stokes was criticized heavily for his early declaration in England’s first innings, the England captain has kept the game alive with his smart tactical moves.
There have been plenty of good decisions made by Stokes. From bowling changes to the field placements, the England captain is probably getting everything right. For example, Stokes set a strange field for a well-set Usmana Khawaja in Australia’s first innings and it resulted in the batter’s dismissal.
Now, in Australia’s second innings when England are looking to bowl out their opponents before they chase down the set target, Stokes set a unique field for Travis Head. The England skipper made Harry Brook stand behind the bowler near the ropes.
This field set reminded Kumar Sangakkara of MS Dhoni’s field for Kieron Pollard in an IPL match. “This is like MS Dhoni’s captaincy. He used to do it for Pollard in IPL, fielder straight behind bowlers arm – Stokes was in CSK as well,” said Sangakkara on air.
Did this field set from Ben Stokes work for England?
This unique field setting for Travis Head did work eventually for England as the batter was dismissed in the very next over. Although the fielder set by Stokes was not directly involved in the dismissal, Brook standing right in the line of the bowler played on Travis’ mind and the batter ended up handing a dolly to Joe Root in the slips against Moeen Ali.
Now, it will be interesting to see how this dismissal pans out for England and Australia. While the hosts will look to bowl out the opposition, Australia will look to save the game and not concede a lead in this all-important series.
