England's Stokes calls for change in over rate regulations

International Test Match Series - Fourth Test - England & India Press Conference - Old Trafford Cricket Ground, Manchester, Britain - July 22, 2025 England's Ben Stokes during the press conference Action Images via Reuters/Lee Smith

The over rate regulations must be modified according to the playing conditions in different continents, England Test captain Ben Stokes said on Tuesday, arguing that current rules unfairly penalise pace-heavy attacks.

England were docked two World Test Championship (WTC) points and fined 10 percent of their match fees last week for their slow over rate in the third Test against India at Lord's.

Stokes accepted the sanction but, ahead of the fourth Test in Manchester starting on Wednesday, he said the rules should be different for seam-friendly conditions.

"You can't have the same rules in Asia, where a spinner is bowling 70 percent of the overs, to have the same laws in New Zealand, Australia, England, where it's going to be 70-80% seam," Stokes told reporters.

"The spinner's over takes less time than the seamer's over. So common sense would think that you should look at maybe changing how the overrates are timed in different continents."

This is not the first time Stokes has raised concerns around over rate rules. Last year, he called on the International Cricket Council (ICC) to revisit the regulations after England and New Zealand were penalised following their first Test in Christchurch.

England lost 22 points during the previous WTC cycle due to over rate violations.

"Over rate isn't something that I worry about, but that's not saying that I purposely slow things down. I do understand the frustration around it, but I honestly think there needs to be a real hard look at how it's structured," Stokes said.

The skipper said spinner Shoaib Bashir's injury during the Lord's Test forced England to rely more on pace bowlers.

"We played five days, that was our 15th day of cricket. We obviously had an injury to Bash (Bashir), a spinner, so we couldn't turn to our spinner as much as we would have liked to on day five," the 34-year-old said.

"I wonder if scoring rates have got anything to do with that as well. The ball's getting hit to the boundary more often, so it's going to take a lot longer."

England lead the five-match Test series 2-1.