Get serious Time for England to learn that fun cricket isn't always smart cricket

Ben Stokes played his 100th Test in Rajkot last week, an occasion preceded by countless breathless profi les, articles that portrayed him almost as a superhuman, playing his own game, dancing to his own tune.

He was described as an innovator, a visionary and a masterly captain. Well, sport has a way of putting you in your place and India certainly did that .

I don’t want to minimise Stokes’s achievements. Visiting Lord’s and the Oval during the Ashes series last summer I did a few Q&As with fans in lunch breaks. There is no doubt the public were enthralled by his team. As captain he inherited a group that were playing poorly and losing . He has taken the pressure off  them, galvanised them and given them a method they are happy to use.

But I am left thinking, is that what success is? Is it success for a team to entertain whether they win, lose or draw? Or is success getting the job done : winning matches, winning series, competing for the World Test Championship? I don’t for a moment believe Stokes thinks it’s all crash, bang, wallop . The evidence for that is his superb innings in the 2019 World Cup fi nal , when he adapted better than anyone to a slow wicket, and in the way he constructed his magnifi cent century against Australia at Headingley a few weeks later.

He is a thinking cricketer and his 100th Test will have been a chastening one. It feels like as captain he has accomplished half a mission . He has transformed the mood around his side, but there is still work to do on their mindset.

Going into day three with the overnight score 207 for two after India’s fi rst-innings of 445 and Ravichandran Ashwin at least temporarily out of the game because of a family emergency, a ruthless team would have gone about trying to knock off the defi cit, keep India in the fi eld, wear down their bowlers and put themselves in a position of advantage. This England side collapsed.