England is currently at the sixth spot in the race for the World Test Championship Finals which is to be held next year at the Lords. For the last two consecutive years, England cricket team could not find themselves on the top position of the podium by settling at the fourth position. Recently when asked about the WTC in a press conference, skipper Ben Stokes reverted by calling it “Confusing”. Seems Like England cannot get their hands on the grapes, thus calling them ‘Sour’.
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“In all honesty, the World Test Championship is a bit confusing; it is one of those where, you know, we do not really look at it, I do not look at it. It is one of those where, over a long period of time, if you are playing really good cricket and you are getting results that you want, you will end up finding yourself there in the final and in the mix. For me and this team, it is about taking it game by game, series by series, and if you end up finding yourself in the position where you happen to be in that world test championship final, then it is great, but it is a real weird one knowing that you are playing for something over a long period of time. I cannot remember if I have ever even given any real time to be specifically thinking about the World Test Championship to be honest because it is utterly confusing, we play a lot more cricket than anyone else does, that is just what we try and focus on, you know, if we play well, we will be there or thereabouts, but if we do not, then we would not be” said Stokes as quoted by Wisden.
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The Induction of former New Zealand skipper, Brandon McCullum as their test coach seemed promising initially, but his ‘Bazball’ approach seems to be like a two edged sword fort the English. Bazball is an informal term as it was developed after the appointments of Brandon McCullum whose nickname is Baz as Test head coach and Ben Stokes as Test captain. Their failure to challenge for the top spots in the three editions to date is probably partly to blame for this apathy as well.
