England captain Ben Stokes and India head coach Gautam Gambhir have different opinions over injury replacement in Test cricket, with the former dismissing the debate as ‘ridiculous.’

The debate arose when a question was asked in the light of injury to Rishabh Pant in the Manchester Test of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, where he batted despite a broken foot.

However, he was in no position to keep wickets and Dhruv Jurel stood behind the stumps to cover for Pant.

“I think it is absolutely ridiculous there is a conversation around an injury replacement. There would be too many loopholes for a team to go through. You pick an 11 for the game, injuries are part of it. I think that conversation should be shut down,” said Stokes in the post-match press conference.

A concussion substitute was introduced in the wake of Australia opener Phil Hughes’ death in 2014 after being hit on the head but there is no such provision in case of any other serious injury.

On the other hand, India head coach Gautam Gambhir is in favour of such a rule to be introduced. As far as the exploitation of rules is concerned, the India coach want the umpires and match referees to given the charge of allowing a replacement if such injuries happen.

“Absolutely, I’m all for it, if the umpires and the match referee sees and feels that there’s a major injury. It’s very important to have this rule, where you can get a substitute.”

“That is, if it’s very visible, there’s nothing wrong in doing that. Especially in a series like this, where it’s been such a closely fought series, in the previous 3 Test matches,” Gambhir said.

“Imagine if we would have had to play with 10 people, 10 men against 11. How unfortunate would this be for us,” he added.

England leads the series 2-1 by the end of fourth test and the final test will be played between July 31 and August 04 at The Kennington Oval.