India, July 8 -- England faced a mammoth 336-run defeat to India in the second Test of the series at Edgbaston last week, with their captain, Ben Stokes, igniting further criticism when he labelled the pitch in Birmingham as "subcontinental." Stokes made the remark during the post-match presentation, which didn't sit well with many fans, who accused the English skipper of making an excuse for the loss.

"To be honest, it's probably ended up being more of a subcontinent pitch as it got deeper and deeper into the game. There was certainly a little bit in it to start off with and I think we exposed that very very well early on," Stokes had said.

"Then just as it sort of got deeper and deeper, it just became a real tough slug for us and obvi...