Ben Stokes stands by decision to leave out Stuart Broad in first West Indies Test

The stand-in England captain also has no regrets over choosing to bat first after the tourists went 1-0 up in the series

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England captain Ben Stokes has no regrets over the pre-match decisions which shaped the defeat to West Indies at The Ageas Bowl.

The Windies chased down 200 in the fourth innings on the fifth day in Southampton, with Jermaine Blackwood scoring a diligent 95.

Stokes' side were on the back-foot from the get-go in the first international match since the COVID-19 pandemic, being dismissed for 202 in their first innings and having to come from 114 runs behind when they batted again.

Their predicament stemmed from the decision not to include Broad - a veteran of 485 Test wickets - in their XI and to bat first under cloudy skies after winning the toss.

But the Durham man, standing in for Joe Root who attended the birth of his second child, believes England could still have come out on the right side of the result.

"I stand by the decision I made to bat first," he told Sky Sports. "We've got to be good enough to put first innings runs on the board. That's what we base our cricket around. 

"If we elect to bat we know we're good enough to get 400-500 runs on the board which obviously makes the game must more in your favour. We just didn't quite manage to grasp the game but it is a massive learning curve for a lot of our batting line-up and the young guys as well."

Stuart Broad on first Test omission: "I've been frustrated, angry, gutted because it is a hard decision to understand"

On the omission of Broad, who admitted he was "angry and frustrated" during the game Stokes added: "If I was to regret that I don't think that sends the right message to the other guys who I picked. We're in a fortunate position that we're able to leave out a guy of Stuart's quality. 

"The passion that he showed in that interview, I'd be worried if he didn't show that desire and passion towards not being selected. Someone who has played that many Test matches and has got that many wickets, to see that emotion and desire as a senior player in this team and if he plays in the second Test I hope he walks onto the field with a bit of 'up you'."

Early wickets for Jofra Archer and Mark Wood in the Windies chase appeared to put England in the box seat until Blackwood's fine knock took the game away from them.

Stokes, who took 2-39 himself, always believed he had enough runs to play with as England chase 10 wickets to win the Test.

"You've got to believe that is enough," he explained. "If you start to think that you don't have enough on the board then you're already losing. Ideally we would have liked to have got more runs in the first innings. 

"It was a first innings v fourth innings Test match. We got ourselves into some great positions with the bat but unfortunately, we were not ruthless enough to really go on and make it count."

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