5 bizarre statements made by the England Test team in recent times ft. Jeetan Patel

England's Bazball ideology has tasted incredible success on the field under Ben Stokes's captaincy and Brendon McCullum's coaching. However, one of the facets where the ideology has drawn mixed reactions is the statements given by the players and the coaching staff.

Mind games are an important part of cricket and players want to have a psychological advantage over the opposition. However, there have been times when some of the statements made from the England camp have been met with scrutiny.

Some statements also have become a laughing stock, questioning the level of delusion in the team. The recent statement made by Jeetan Patel, England's assistant coach, is one such example. Let's look at five instances where a statement made by members of the England team and coaching staff has ended up being bizarre.

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#5 Jeetan Patel

England's assistant coach Jeetan Patel gave his opinion on the performance of England spinners after the end of play on Day 2 of the ongoing Test in Hyderabad. India ended the day on 421/7 with a lead of 175 runs and were in a dominant position in the Test match, leaving the visitors searching for answers.

However, Patel was delighted to see the fight his team showed and claimed that he felt the spinners had a great energetic day. Here's what he told Sky Sports:

"It was a tough day for us. The guys put in a fantastic effort. If you walked into the ground without knowing the score, you'd think England were right on the top of the game."

The comment understandably attracted criticism from the cricketing fraternity, with many claiming that the England management were in delusion and weren't ready to accept that they played ordinary cricket.

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#4 Ben Duckett

England opener Ben Duckett had spoken to the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast ahead of the ongoing Test series against India about what his plans were going to be for potential rank-tuners.

While the southpaw seemingly wanted to underline the importance of sweeps and reverse sweeps, he ended up saying that he would use reverse sweep as a forward defense, something which perplexed many.

Here's what he said:

"If it’s spinning sideways and they’ve got men all round the bat, I might use my reverse sweep as a forward defence, without trying to give too much away."

Duckett made use of his sweeps well with scores of 35 and 47 in the first Test.

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#3 Zak Crawley

Zak Crawley had made a rather strange prediction ahead of the second Ashes 2023 Test at Lord's, claiming that the hosts would win the game by 150 runs. This was just after they lost the first Test of the series at Edgbaston by three wickets.

Here's what Crawley told Times Radio:

"I think we'll win. I think it will suit us a bit more, that pitch. So I think we'll win by, I don't know, 150 runs?"

Australia ended up winning the second Test as well, by a margin of 43 runs despite a valiant 155 from Ben Stokes in the fourth innings. Crawley's comment was naturally trolled as it fell flat on its face.

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#2 Ben Duckett

Australia had posted 416 runs batting first in the second Ashes 2023 Test at Lord's, but were behind the 8-ball as Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley had got England off to a fantastic start in their first innings.

The Aussies seemed to be running out of ideas and decided to unleash a short-ball ploy on the England batters. Despite knowing that it was an attempt to make things happen, Duckett went for the pull shot and found David Warner at fine leg.

The southpaw was dismissed for 98 and from 208/2, England collapsed to 325 all out, handing Australia a handy lead of 91 runs. However, Ben Duckett claimed he had no regrets about the shot he played.

Here's what he said after the end of the day's play:

“I would have been gutted with myself if I'd gone away from it, gone into my shell and gloved one behind. For three or four overs before that I felt so comfortable hitting it down to fine leg, or just behind square for one.Why do I have to bat like Sir Alastair Cook or these great openers of the past? "

Given Australia won the game by just 43 runs, that passage of play proved to be pivotal for the visitors. Duckett and other England batters could have possibly shown better game awareness and could have just played out the short-ball phase instead of being rigid with their approach.

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#1 Ollie Robinson

Ollie Robinson was at the receiving end of some scrutiny as he had once taken a dig at former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting. In a press conference during the first Ashes 2023 Test at Edgbaston, Robinson was asked about his aggressive send-off after picking up Usman Khawaja's wicket.

The pacer responded by doubling down on former Australian cricketers and here's what he said:

"We've all seen Ricky Ponting and other Aussies do the same to us, and just because the shoe is on the other foot it's not received well."

Robinson recently accepted that perhaps it wasn't the smartest of things to name a former cricketer while he made his point in the press conference.