Aakash Chopra questions Ben Stokes after ENG vs IND 2025 2nd Test

Former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra has questioned England captain Ben Stokes after the home team suffered a huge loss of 336 runs against India at Edgbaston, Birmingham on Sunday. Chopra questioned why Stokes is regarded as one of the best all-rounders in Test cricket and said the English captain doesn’t have a great record with either bat or ball in the last two years.

Stokes returned with scores of 0 and 33 in the second Test against the visitors. Furthermore, the England captain registered figures of 1-74 and 0-26 in the two innings.

In the opening Test of the series, Stokes had scored 20 and 33 against India but had bowled well as he had taken five wickets. Chopra noted that Stokes scored his last Test century two years ago.

“I want to talk about Ben Stokes because we are told and made to understand that he is the best in the world, that his statue should be built. However, the question is what he is actually. Let’s go into the numbers. His last Test hundred came in 2023. It’s been two years,” Chopra said on his YouTube Channel.

“He has been a team’s captain continuously for two years. There has been no pressure on him for his place. He has an average of 26 or 27 and hasn’t scored a century for the last two years, but he is the best all-rounder. So he might have taken a lot of wickets. The bowling numbers are also very ordinary. So neither here nor there, but still considered to be the best in the world,” he added.

Meanwhile, the renowned commentator also questioned Stokes’ batting position at number six.

“He bats at No. 6. Whoever bats at No. 6 is generally an all-rounder. For some time, he wasn’t bowling, but he was still batting there. He didn’t go to bat up the order at all, and never does that. It’s a bit of a cop-out because eight out of 10 times, you bat with the tail,” he said.

Chopra highlighted that it is not easy to score while batting with the tail as the batter has to take his chances.

“Everyone would clap if you score runs with the tail, and if you are unable to do so, they would say it was the tail, so could he have done it alone, as people got out from the other end, and he was forced to hit?” Chopra observed.

The third Test match between India and England will be played at Lord’s, London from 10th July onwards.