ENG vs IND: Dale Steyn slams Ravindra Jadeja & Washington Sundar for declining Ben Stokes' handshake offer

India managed to draw the fourth test in Manchester with Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar remaining not out.

South Africa pace legend Dale Steyn has criticized Indian all-rounders Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar for playing for free milestones and refusing to shake Ben Stokes’ hands for the draw in the recently-concluded fourth test between England and India in Manchester.

India were bundled after scoring 358 in the first innings after losing the toss and being put in to bat first. Rishabh Pant played a heroic knock of 54 despite having a broken toe, but Sai Sudharsan scored the highest score of 61. Ben Stokes took five wickets and was the star with the ball for the hosts.

England were at their most dominant in second innings of the game, where they batted for over two days and hammered 669 runs. Joe Root was the highest scorer at 150, and Ben Stokes smashed 141 to record his first century of the series. They took a 311-run lead as a result.

Before KL Rahul and Shubman Gill stood firm with an 188-run partnership, India were struggling at 0/2 in the opening over of the third innings. Gill hammered 103, his fourth century of the series, while Rahul was out for 90.

Following the dismissal of both hitters, Sundar and Jadeja managed to score plenty of runs in the final ball of play on the fifth day, despite the English bowlers’ fury. India thus played to a hard-fought draw.

That’s the gentlemanly thing to do: Dale Steyn on Ben Stokes offering Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar the handshake

Since both batters wanted to reach their hundreds, there was significant controversy at the end of the game when Jadeja declined Ben Stokes’ offer to shake hands and end the match as a draw. As a result, the England players gave both Indian stars a hard time.

The majority of the cricket community, however, has criticized England’s subpar on-field antics and backed the Indian hitters. But oddly, former South African fast bowler Dale Steyn has sided with England.

Steyn stated in a post on his X (formerly Twitter) account that the batters, Washington Sundar and Jadeja, were playing for a draw rather than hundreds. The ‘gentlemanly’ thing to do after that was to shake hands with Ben Stokes rather than pursuing ‘free milestones.’

“This onion has many layers to it, and each one will make someone cry. The only issue I see here is the one thing people aren’t realizing: the batters weren’t playing for 100s; they were batting for a DRAW. That was the goal. Draw the game. Once that was accomplished, and a result was out of the question, a handshake was offered; that’s the gentlemanly thing to do, right?

It’s not then the time to realize they’re safe and now say, No, we’d prefer some free milestones… Although within the rules, it just seems a little, well, odd. That said, they did bat well, and maybe with the last hour approaching, they should have been more aggressive in reaching those milestones; at least then, we could all agree no team tried to outdo the other in this weird situation,” Steyn wrote on X.

The fifth and final test of the series for the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy 2025 will be played at The Oval from July 31.

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