After Ben Stokes "Absolutely Ridiculous" Take On Proposed Role, Gautam Gambhir's Stand
Gautam Gambhir and Ben Stokes in absolute disagreement over introduction of 'injury replacement' rule in cricket.
- Rishabh Pant fractured his toe and could not keep wickets during the Manchester Test
- England captain Ben Stokes called the idea of injury replacements ridiculous and exploit-prone
- India coach Gautam Gambhir supports introducing a rule allowing injury replacements
Indian and England camps stand poles apart over a raging topic that has kept the cricket world busy for the most part of the Manchester Test. India wicket-keeper batter Rishabh Pant fractured his toe and the injury prevented him from keeping wickets. Though Pant showed incredible courage to bat in the first innings with a broken toe, the situation saw many urge the International Cricket Council (ICC) to introduce a law that enables a team to make a fully-functional replacement for a player who sustained such an injury. However, England captain Ben Stokes and India head coach Gautam Gambhir are divided on the topic.
In the press conference, Stokes called the idea 'ridiculous', suggesting that such a law would introduce too many loopholes for teams to exploit. Hence no such rule should even be discussed.
"I think it is absolutely ridiculous there is a conversation around an injury replacement. There would be too many loopholes for a team to go through. You pick an 11 for the game, injuries are part of it. I think that conversation should be shut down," said Stokes in the post-match press conference.
Gambhir, on the other hand, is in favour of such a rule to be introduced. As far as the exploitation of rules is concerned, the India coach wants the umpires and match referees to given the charge of allowing a replacement if such injuries happen.
"Absolutely, I'm all for it, if the umpires and the match referee sees and feels that there's a major injury. It's very important to have this rule, where you can get a substitute. That is, if it's very visible, there's nothing wrong in doing that. Especially in a series like this, where it's been such a closely fought series, in the previous 3 Test matches," Gambhir said.
"Imagine if we would have had to play with 10 people, 10 men against 11. How unfortunate would this be for us," he added.
India Cricket Team
England Cricket Team
Ben Stokes
Gautam Gambhir