ENG vs IND 2025: 'India were able to live up to the pressure' - Ben Stokes after drawn Manchester Test

Ben Stokes and Ravindra Jadeja. (Photo source: Getty Images)

Ben Stokespraised the competitive nature of both England and India in the four out of the five Tests which have been played so far. His comments came after India salvaged a well-earned draw in the Manchester Test.

He appreciated the grit which India showed with the bat in the last couple of days after facing two early blows in the first over on the fourth day.

"It was a great start yesterday (Day 4) with two wickets in the first over, but it was one of those wickets, if you got in, you felt like you were going to be the one to make a mistake to get out. It's been a back and forth series so far. We've been throwing punches in, they've been throwing punches back at us and it's just been really high-quality cricket. Two very good teams and I've got to give credit to the way that India came out here and performed under the pressure that they were," shared Stokes during the post-match presentation.

They were able to live up to the pressure: Stokes

The English skipper reflected on the dynamic nature of a team's strategies a captain and their team have to typically adopt to on the final day of a match.

"But you always knew that the quality that India have, if they were able to get themselves in, they were going to be hard to dislodge and they proved that. When you're bowling on Day 5, you've got to move away to different plans, different fields, different ways of trying to generate wickets, different ways of making batters out there in the middle uncomfortable. We threw absolutely everything at them and they were able to live up to the pressure," added Stokes.

England were in the ascendancy after having India 0/2 in the first over of the visitors' second innings. However, the Shubman Gill-led team batted brilliantly to deprive England a chance.