Dale Steyn slams Washington Sundar - Ravindra Jadeja for chasing ‘free milestones’, backs Ben Stokes in handshake row

A new-look Team India fought their way through the last two days of the Manchester Test to secure a draw and keep the five-match series alive going into the Oval. While there was plenty of talk about the grit and determination shown by the Indian batters, a fresh controversy emerged in the final hour of play on Day 5 when English skipper Ben Stokes offered to end the game with a handshake, only for the Indian batters to refuse as they were closing in on their respective centuries.

After Stokes' offer was turned down, the English captain tried to persuade Ravindra Jadeja by asking if he really wanted to score a century against the likes of Harry Brook and Ben Duckett. Zak Crawley also jumped into the exchange, urging Jadeja to shake hands with Stokes and leave the field.

While much of the cricketing fraternity—including former England captains Alastair Cook and Nasser Hussain—backed India’s decision to keep batting, others criticised the move as going against the 'spirit of the game'.

Steyn was replying to a post by Proteas spinner Tabraiz Shamsi, who wrote on X (formerly Twitter): "Why is there such a big deal being made about the Indians choosing not to accept the offer to end the game in a draw immediately? The offer was made. The offer was rejected, and they were fully entitled to make their choice. They got their 100s, which they worked hard for. Game over,"

Steyn replied to that post stating, “Shamo 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 safe and now say no we’d prefer some free milestones… although within the rules, 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 out do the other in this weird situation,”