“It's absolutely ridiculous” - Ben Stokes on conversations around injury replacements

England captain Ben Stokes has opened up with his opinion on a lot of people talking about the injury substitutes in the middle of the game. Notably, there have been a lot of talks about the rule change to bring in like-for-like injury substitutes after Rishabh Pant fractured his foot during the Manchester Test.

While Dhruv Jurel replaced Pant as a keeper for the Manchester Test, the rule suggests that he can’t bat; replacing Pant as Jurel wasn’t part of the initial playing XI. Speaking on the same, Stokes said that it’s absolutely ridiculous to have a conversation around an injury replacement. 

"I think it's absolutely ridiculous that there's a conversation around an injury replacement. I think that there would just be too many loopholes for teams to be able to go through. You pick your 11 for a game; injuries are part of the game,” Ben Stokes said after the Manchester Test.

Moreover, Stokes added that there would be a possibility of a lot of loopholes being found around the injury substitutes. Though he is completely okay with concussion substitutes, he is against the injury replacements.

“I completely understand the concussion replacement: player welfare, [and] player safety. But I think the conversation should just honestly stop around injury replacements because if you stick me in an MRI scanner, I could get someone else in straightaway,” he added.

"If you stick anyone else with an MRI scanner, a bowler is going to show, 'Oh yeah, you've got a bit of inflammation around your knee. Oh sweet, we can get another fresh bowler in'. I just think that conversation should be shut down and stopped," he noted.

On the other hand, Indian head coach Gautam Gambhir has confirmed that Pant has been ruled out of the fifth and final Test with a fractured foot. Tamil Nadu batter Narayan Jagadeesan has replaced the keeper-batter in the squad.

"Rishabh, already it's been declared that he's out of the series. One thing I want to say is that the character, the foundation of this team will be built on something that [he] did for the team and for the country as well. Any amount of praise is not enough for him, especially batting with a broken foot,” Gambhir told reporters.

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