“Pretty much every run was needed,” says Pat Cummins about Ben Stokes’s decision to end the first innings of the Edgbaston Test.

When asked if he would have ended the game on the first day with 393 runs and 8 wickets left and their best player on 118, Pat Cummins said he never would have.

Australia beat England by two wickets on the fifth day of the first Test of the Ashes 2023 series. This gives Australia a 1-0 lead in the series. Captain Pat Cummins (44 not out) and Nathan Lyon (16 not out) put together 55 runs without losing a wicket to help their team win. After England lost, England’s captain, Ben Stokes, is being attacked for declaring early on Day 1 of the Test.

Stokes ended England’s first innings on Day 1 with the score at 393/8, even though Joe Root (118*) and Ollie Robinson (17*) were still at the crease. He did this so he could bowl at the Australian openers. But they didn’t make a difference because openers David Warner and Usman Khawaja were able to stay safe until the end of play.

“Probably not, no. The Mirror.co.uk quoted Pat Cummins as saying, “I wasn’t too surprised, but the wicket felt pretty good, so I thought every run was pretty much needed in that first innings.”

Stokes said that he thought it was time to attack the Australian starters because there were still more than 20 minutes left in the day. He also said that, if the chance came up, he wouldn’t be afraid to declare himself again in a similar position.

I’m not going to change anything about how I play cricket. Ben Stokes

“I thought it would be a good time to strike. If we were both in the same place,? Yeah. I’d like to have 398 points out of 600 with 20 minutes left. That’d be awesome. Even though it’s the Ashes, I’m not going to change how I play cricket. Who knows, we might have gotten an extra 40 runs or lost two wickets in two balls. Stokes said, “I’m not a leader who gets by on “what ifs.”

Michael Vaughan, a former England captain, has said that Stokes will not declare in a similar situation in the second Test. It will be interesting to see if Stokes sticks to what he said as England and Australia get ready to play the second Test at Lord’s starting on Wednesday, June 28.