The upcoming ODI series between West Indies and England in the Caribbean promises to be an entertaining affair, as both sides have individuals who can change the outcome of the matter of a few overs. England endured a tough, but the promising assignment in India as they lost the ODI and T20I series 2-1 each. Despite the result, their performances were quite impressive as the batsmen did well.
For England, all-rounder Ben Stokes will be under the scanner as he has recently become the talk of the town after getting millions in the IPL player auctions. However, Stokes will take the field against the West Indies with something in his mind surely.
The last time these two teams met, it was in the final of the 2016 World T20, where Stokes was belted for four sixes in the final over by Carlos Brathwaite. As a result, a match which seemed lost for the West Indies turned into a victory and Stokes was devastated after such a drubbing.
The all-rounder, though, is eager to renew his rivalry with the West Indies. “If I ever repeat something like that again – I don’t think I ever would – but if I did, I’d be very disappointed in myself,” Stokes said. “But I feel now I’ve got a better way of dealing with failure. I try and deal with it now as I deal with success. I never look too far ahead after doing well, so I just try to have the same mentality about failure: just chuck it behind you, start working harder to get better.”
Speaking highly about the series against India, Stokes said, “If we deliver on the stuff we’ve been doing in the white-ball form then hopefully we’re going to go far. We’ve been really, really good over the last two years in white-ball cricket. We got a bit of stick in India, which was undeserved. We scored a lot of runs against a really good team. Scoring 350 and losing and then chasing 370 and getting 360 and losing… I don’t think there’s much bad you can take away from that.”
Admitting that he wasn’t too carried away by the millions he got at the IPL auction, Stokes said, “The auction stuff is very tough to talk about. It’s one of those things that makes me a little bit awkward. You may have noticed. “The main thing you want to do is walk off at the end on the winning team. All things outside that bubble go out of the window once you go out on to the pitch.”