Fans slammed England skipper Ben Stokes for his disappointing performances in the second Test fixture against India at Edgbaston on Sunday, July 6. Stokes failed to arrest his slide in the series and put England under pressure in a stiff chase of 608.

England began Day 5 on 72/3, after the rain delay cost nearly two hours of the game. Akash Deep continued his impressive show as he made Ollie Pope drag the ball onto his stumps.

The wicket resulted in Stokes arriving at the crease, but Akash soon trapped Harry Brook (23) LBW to put the hosts in a spot of bother. However, Jamie Smith joined hands with last innings centurion Jamie Smith, who played with a positive intent.

Although Ben Stokes tried to convert his start into a big knock, he was trapped LBW at the stroke of Lunch, which reduced England to 153/6. He was dismissed for 33 off 73, while hitting six fours.

Fans on X (formerly Twitter) did not keep calm while expressing their anger towards Stokes’ bad form. One of them wrote:

“Would’ve rated Ben Stokes if he had actually played for a draw, but he can’t. hardly scores runs these days, struggles against spin, yet the way he’s overhyped like some messiah who invented test cricket really gets on my nerves!”

Here are the other reactions:

“The biggest fraud of world cricket is Ben Stokes. Played only one impactful innings in Headingley and surviving on that. Degraded the quality of test cricket by making flat pitches just for the sake of Bazball,” one fan posted

“This overrated mf Ben Stokes will get out to an ordinary delivery and then give reaction like it was the ball of the decade and he had no fault whatsoever, Brit PR needs to get over Headingley,” another wrote.

“Ben Stokes has been laid bare in this match. He’s better than that & he has an absolutely shyte team. Take some bloody ownership, get up the order & ditch the crap,” another tweeted.

Mohammad Kaif questions hype around Ben Stokes in ENG vs IND 2nd Test

Former Indian batter Mohammad Kaif took note of Ben Stokes’ captaincy failure and his inability to provide consistent performances with the bat. During the first innings of the second Test, Kaif questioned the choice of Stokes to bowl first on a flat track.

He wrote on X:

“I have never understood the hype around Ben Stokes the captain. On a flat track with sun shining he decides to bowl, today with some life in pitch edges flying but no extra slip. Batsmen took England to win in first Test but Stokes didn’t score many. Please inform if I have missed any of his hidden leadership master stroke.”

It is worth noting that England finished fifth in the last World Test Championship (WTC) cycle with only 11 wins in 22 games under Ben Stokes.