In Stokesy, England believe!

Ben Stokesrsquos aggressive approach to captaincy may have failed to claim victory in a hardfought second Test but the fivematch series is still wide open at oneallMuch of Englandrsquos success has been attributed to Bazballmdashthe desire to score quickly and tactically rattle the oppositionmdashbut this is a misnomer What Stokes has really done is set out to achieve victory from ball one by playing aggressive cricket in all aspects of the gameStokes has been extremely smart to adopt such an approach and his aggressive tactics have brought England great success in the win column Itrsquos an approach that England were extremely slow to adopt but Stokes has shown himself to be a strongminded and smart leaderThe England team have great belief in Stokes and it shows up both on and off the field The team capture wickets because they are continually looking for victims and this challenge is accepted by the bowlers One of the great benefits of this strategy is that it enthuses the best players and they are the ones most likely to affect the final resultBen gives something extraThe team also believe that Stokesrsquos aggression will help them claim the odd unexpected success This belief is what generally leads to a team producing something extra that leads to a vital wicket Stokesrsquos brilliance in the field helped him produce a run out at a crucial time in the first innings and this also helps increase team beliefThe attitude of Stokes has helped the younger players to believe in themselves and this is showing up in their bowling performances The success of young players Tom Hartley Rehan Ahmed and Shoaib Bashir is no fluke and epitomises the confidence instilled by Stokesrsquos approachThe success of Hartley with both bat and ball should make the limited Jack Leach redundant in the Test side One of Englandrsquos weaknesses has been their spin department but Stokesrsquos positive approach suddenly means that slow bowling has a number of candidatesThe success of Ollie Pope at No 3 and the ascension of Harry Brook as a vital middleorder player also means the batting is potentially much strongerThese marked improvements in talent should ensure that in future England pick their strongest available team for the prevailing conditions England have erred in the past by not picking their best glove man and by often shunning the value of extra pace Injuries to pace bowlers aside this should be a thing of the pastAlso ReadEngland all in but no winSkip must field at slipIt will help England enormously if Stokes is once again able to function as an allrounder as his bowling is a distinct weapon It would also help if Stokes fielded in the slips especially to the spinners as he is one of the best in that positionThe other area where England could improve is in use of the bouncer barrage Itrsquos often an overused ploy and it must be remembered the biggest advantage of the bouncer is the element of surpriseOne personal area Stokes could look at is his own batting If he were more proactive at the start of each innings it would improve his play Stokes is a very good batsman but hersquos at his best when hersquos looking to scoreIndia are a strong side and they also have a good leader in Rohit Sharma They will be greatly strengthened by the recovery from injury of Ravindra Jadeja and KL Rahul but no Virat Kohli is a blow Hopefully the selectors will now stop overestimating Shreyas Iyerrsquos batting ability but learn to value Kuldeep Yadavrsquos wickettaking capability moreAs the home side India should eventually win a tough series but it has a real battle on its hands England under the aggressive leadership of Stokes is a far cry from the poorly captained Joe Root team that capitulated against spin on their last tour of the countryThis India versus England contest is shaping up to be as it shouldmdasha tough fivematch encounter between two talented sides