"Great job from BCCI....": England skipper Stokes' thanks board for resolving Rehan's visa issue

Rehan Ahmed. (Photo- ECB X)

Rajkot (Gujarat) [India], February 14 (ANI): Ahead of the third Test against India at Rajkot, England Test skipper Ben Stokes thanked the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for getting young spinner Rehan Ahmed’s visa issues resolved and added that the team was going to play him in the third Test despite these issues because of his fine performances in the series so far.

The ongoing five-match Test series is poised at 1-1 after the completion of the first two Tests. The third match of the series will be played at Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium on Thursday. Earlier, Rehan faced a visa issue as he was stopped at the Hirasar Airport on Tuesday ahead of the third Test.

As per the media reports, England travelled to Abu Dhabi after the end of the second Test at Visakhapatnam as there was a 10-day gap between the second and third match of the series. While returning, Rehan was stopped at the Airport as he only held a single-entry visa.

A BCCI official had asserted that the visitors have been advised to process the player’s visa again in the next two days.

“The England team has been advised to process the visa again which will be happening in the next two days. The player was allowed to enter the country with the rest of the team and he will be appearing in practice on Tuesday,” a BCCI official was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.

During the pre-match press conference ahead of England’s third Test, Stokes’ said that the issue was resolved and thanked the board for helping the team out.

“For any individual having to wait for that is always an anxious period, but thankfully, we got it through this morning, and great job from the guys at the airport for giving him his visa to get through initially, and everyone at the BCCI and the government to get the visa quickly. We do not have to worry anymore about those issues, we were very confident that we would get the visa for Rehan before the game started,” said Stokes in the pre-match press conference.

Stokes’ also said that Rehan handled the situation very well being a youngster.

“The great thing about youth is they just take everything in their stride. He handled a situation that could have affected quite a lot of people in a different way very, very well for such a young kid,” said Stokes.

The skipper said that Rehan was going to play the game since he had gone out and delivered in the previous two games. Stokes’ also said that bringing an extra seamer in Mark Wood by removing spinner Shoaib Bashir gives them the best chance of winning the game.

“There were no thoughts around not playing him this week. The Test matches he has played so far, he has done very, very well and everything we have asked of him he has gone out and tried to deliver.”

“The only thing I will say to Rehan is whenever you have got the ball think about taking a wicket every ball and do not worry about too much else.”

“Bringing in an extra seamer this week is the option we’ve gone with because we think it’s going to give us the best chance of winning this week. Bash [Shaoib Bashir] performed incredibly well in his first game for England; he will just take it in his stride. He is a young lad and would want to play every game possible but I have got no doubt there will be more opportunities for him going forward in this series,” concluded Stokes.

England Cricket Board (ECB) on Wednesday named the playing eleven for the third Test match against India in Rajkot, as pacer Mark Wood replaced Shoaib Bashir in the playing squad. The series is currently level at 1-1.

“The Three Lions have made one change with Mark Wood replacing Shoaib Bashir,” the statement from ECB said.

Skipper Ben Stokes will play his 100th Test match for England at Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium.

“Captain Ben Stokes is set to make his 100th Test appearance in Rajkot,” it added.

The third Test will commence on February 15 in Rajkot while the fourth Test kickstarts in Ranchi on February 23 The fifth and final Test of the series will be played in Dharamsala from March 7.

Heading into the third Test India will be without the experienced wicketkeeper-batter KL Rahul as the player was ruled out of the match. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Monday named Devdutt Padikkal as Rahul’s replacement for the third Test.

England’s Playing Eleven: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes (C), Ben Foakes, Rehan Ahmed, Tom Hartley, Mark Wood, James Anderson.

India’s updated Squad for the third Test: Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (WK), KS Bharat (WK), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja*, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep, Devdutt Padikkal. (ANI)

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