"He is so authentic in how he plays the game" - Stuart Broad lauds England skipper Ben Stokes' aggressive brand of cricket

Veteran pacer Stuart Broad has backed England Test captain Ben Stokes' aggressive brand of cricket that has brought a revolution to the red-ball format.

Since Brendon McCullum and Stokes took charge of the England Test team, they have performed reasonably well. England have pushed for positive results, which has seen the team win seven out of their last nine Tests.

Broad showered praise on Stokes, lauding his aggressive approach. In a video uploaded by Sky Sports on its Twitter handle, the Nottinghamshire pacer said:

"This is very much look for wickets. Even if you look at Stokesy at mid-on and say 'do you think we can lose the fifth slip here?' and he is like, no. He is so authentic in how he plays the game. He is very attacking, he wants to take the game on.

"There will always gonna be criticism of how he gets out," he added. "I think he has been caught at cover 75 times in the last year but he wants to show how he wants his team to play. If he gets out by being over-attacking, that is almost a positive in showing that there are no consequences in taking the game forward."

England's aggressive intent has given Test cricket some much-needed fuel, making the format interesting for viewers as well.

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England opts to bat first in the second Test vs Pakistan

Currently 1-0 ahead, the tourists will look to wrap up the series by winning the second Test at the Multan Cricket Stadium that got underway on Friday, December 9.

With another flat wicket on offer, Stokes had no hesitation in opting to bat first after winning the toss. England have got off to another swift start, mustering 86/1 in just 16 overs and scoring at a rate of 5.38.

Zak Crawley, who scored a fine hundred in the last game, was the only man dismissed. At the time of writing, Ben Duckett (39* off 35) and Ollie Pope (25* off 24) are in the middle for England.