Michael Atherton has lavished praise on Ben Stokes after his bold declaration in the first Test against Pakistan, stating he will "go down as one of the most significant England captains we've had".
Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum have repeatedly said they are prepared to lose in order to have a chance at winning and have absolutely no interest in draws. And the pair have so far delivered on their promise, with England doing everything they possibly can to try and extract a result from a lifeless Rawalpindi pitch.
They have scored big runs very quickly, been inventive in the field and made a risky declaration which means all results are possible on what could be a fascinating final day. And Atherton has lauded Stokes' bravery and the way he and McCullum have decided to approach Test cricket.
Speaking on Sky Sports, Atherton said: "It's a completely different England team and that is solely down to Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum, who are both of a same mind when it comes to playing cricket.
"There are three England captains watching on here live [Atherton, Nasser Hussain and David Gower] and none of us would have declared when Ben Stokes declared at tea.
"It's still a tough ask to score 340 in the fourth innings, but on this pitch I don't think any of us would have been declaring so early.
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Philip Brown/Popperfoto/Popperfoto via Getty Images)"Captains generally err on the side of caution, only 13 captains have declared in the third innings in the history of the game and lost, so generally and particularly in the first Test of a series captains understandably err to caution.
"Stokes is not having a bar of that. He's going to go down as one of the most significant England captains we've had, I think.
"Of course he will hate losing, but he is prepared to lose to win and great credit to him for that. Everything we've seen in this short period of time is that he is prepared to tear up the conventions of the game to play attractive cricket."
