Ind vs Eng 5th Test – Dharamsala – Ben Stokes gives England a taste of what could have been | Top Vip News

Stokes had just started his first competitive match since July at Lord’s against Australia, ending a streak of 15 innings without turning his arm. After knee surgery in late November after the 50-over World Cup, he slowly recovered in India, causing a trundle from the second Test onwards, before finally striking a chord here in the fifth and last game of the series. . He marked the occasion by removing the Indian captain with his first ball.

“It’s quite funny because he started bowling when the English crowd was waking up – they’d turn on the TV and the first thing they’d see was Ben Stokes bowling a really good delivery to Rohit Sharma.”

For those tuning in, Stokes’ lack of celebration would have alerted them to the state of the match. India were 275 for 2, 57 ahead, having started the day 76 behind. He had broken a pinky promise to England physio Ben Davies that he would not even consider bowling in a match on this tour, but India were breaking all English spirits. His first innings lead is now 255 and counting.

In the run-up to this fifth Test at Dharamshala, after the series was over, Stokes reiterated that the bowling attack he had chosen was chosen without considering himself a bowling option. That has been the approach since the Lord’s Test. Taking the ball for the second match after lunch, telegraphed by coming out early from the break and warming up with some deliveries to Patel, will cheer many England fans at the prospect of Stokes reprising his valuable all-round role this summer. But he also came closest to admitting that England have been a closing light in all but the opening Test.

He didn’t take another wicket in his eventual five-over spell but made a couple of errors, both from Sarfaraz, that kept the pair in check. The first was a tough return catch that Stokes took when the batsman had just 2, although he had gone over the front line. In the 7th over, Sarfaraz was turned upside down with a delivery similar to Rohit’s, only this one was wide enough to leave the stumps undisturbed after going over the outside edge.

The tone of the game had changed considerably, and not just because Stokes had turned the air blue with a “f***” caught on microphones after his catch-and-throw attempt. England have been on the rise on the pitch at various points on this trip, but this felt different.

An edge taken from Paddikal was the debutant’s first (and favourite) boundary, and drew a blood-red look from Stokes. After the left-hander came through the covers for his second in Stokes’ next over, he singled to third to keep the strike going and had Stokes for company until the non-striker’s end. Sarfaraz did his best to ignore Stokes’ pressure to react, and it was perhaps that unwillingness to engage that meant a usually destructive batsman was at one point taking 9 off 30 balls.

But Sarfaraz exploded out of his shell, blazing to a half-century, with Paddikal achieving the same at a stand of 97 for the fourth wicket. When they split, India’s lead was 158, before the tail added 97 more. His charge, devastating as it was, began when Stokes ended his spell.

There are mitigating factors for the collective ineffectiveness on either side of Stokes’ spell. The playing field turned out to be more docile than expected. The opening move was not as frequent as the previous day, which says more about the brilliance of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj, even if they went wicketless. Even the ball went soft surprisingly early, despite holding up well throughout this series. None of this seemed to be in play when the captain was bowling.

In his 2016 autobiography, “Firestarter,” Stokes was almost apologetic in explaining the hostile environment of bowling: “I tend to get very angry with myself. Once the adrenaline and the competitive spirit come together, the red fog tends to descend and there is nothing to do.” “If you like the guy you’re up against.”

While “Stokes the all-rounder” adds some extra balance and oomph to England’s two- or three-spin attacks, one wonders whether that competitive edge might have helped the team succeed in the pressure moments scorned during the last eight weeks. He has been optimistic on the field and challenged his players to push themselves at all times. Everyone, in their own way, has responded. But it’s hard not to imagine, given their inspiring qualities, that seeing their leader truly fired up in the heat of battle would have prompted a colder approach.

Maybe he could have gotten more out of the man himself. Stokes has never hidden the fact that his best moment is when he has “twice the chance to change the course of games.” As much as captaincy scratches that itch, nothing motivates him more than the “you versus me” battle.

He is a delegator by profession but a warrior at heart. However, the only chance to go toe-to-toe comes with his batting, where the burden of captaincy weighs the most, as Joe Root and Alastair Cook can attest.

Since starting with 70 in his first innings, he has looked unusually timid throughout the rest of this journey. He often got caught on the back foot deep at his crease against spin, including on day one off Kuldeep Yadav for a six-ball duck. At the time of writing, an average of 21.88 will be the lowest of his three tours of India.

The numbers are too complicated to analyze to determine whether Stokes bats better after bowling. But at least anecdotally, we can look to Headingley 2019 and the mammoth 24.2 overs in Australia’s innings that preceded the miracle 135 not to chase 359. And, given that we are in the foothills of the Himalayas, why not posit the yo ? -did flagellation lead to reaching a higher plane?

Unfortunately, none of this is that simple. “It was nice to see him at the crease again, but we have to be careful not to put too much pressure on him,” urged Patel, with a bucket of cold water. “It’s still early for him.”

By the summer, Stokes will return as a full-fledged all-rounder, with a freshly fixed knee and as fit as ever. It bodes well for the next two years leading up to the next Ashes. But as another important series passes through England, it’s hard not to think about what could have happened in the last two months.