England skipper Ben Stokes is heavily against the idea of injury replacements and feels the conversation around the matter should be 'shut down and stopped' as soon as possible. The debate for injury replacements in Tests sparked after India lost Rishabh Pant due to a foot fracture during the first innings of the fourth Test. Dhruv Jurel substituted him to keep wickets for the rest of the Test, but was not allowed to bat as per the rules.
The ICC's playing conditions currently allow teams to make replacements if a player is concussed or contracts COVID-19 but there is no scope to replace an injured player. Having said that, some boards are set to trial injury replacements at the first class level this year. However, Stokes believes the idea shouldn't be encouraged at all as there are too many loopholes for teams to exploit.
"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. 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.
"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," Stokes said.
India head coach in favour of injury replacements
On the contrary, India head coach Gautam Gambhir is all for injury replacements as he reckons that it is unfair on the team that goes down to 10 men for the rest of the Test. "Absolutely, I'm all for it. If the umpires and the match referee sees and feels that is a major injury, I think it's very important. It's very important to have this rule where you can get a substitute - that is, if it's very visible.
"There's nothing wrong in doing that, especially in a series like this where it's been such a closely-fought series in the previous three Test matches. Imagine if we would've had to play with 10 men against 11. How unfortunate would this be for us," Gambhir said in the post-match press conference.
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