Stokes brings a ray of sunshine on dark day
England captain takes wicket with first ball back but India in command
If Ben Stokes really does write his own scripts it is fair to assume he would not have England staring down the barrel of another nightmare defeat after just two days in a dream setting.
But even the England captain could not have penned his spectacular but, let’s face it, probably futile entrance with the ball in an otherwise predictable tale of Indian domination that will surely end with a 4-1 thumping some time very soon.
All series, Stokes has been playing down his chances of again resuming his all-round role here after surgery on his chronic left knee late last year, even though he has been steadily stepping up his bowling in practice.
So, it was something of a surprise to see him warming up during lunch on the second day of the final Test and coming on to bowl for the second over after the interval with India already, at 275 for one, 57 ahead of England and disappearing out of sight.
Did Stokes really need to bowl, still ahead of his surgeon’s schedule, with the series gone before this Test and this final match seemingly going the way of so many in the past?
Of course he did. The England captain will never give up on any lost cause so here he was steaming in at India captain Rohit Sharma, already with a century to his name, and taking out his off stump with a beauty off his very first ball in fully 251 days.
Sharma reacted with a smile — or was it a grimace? — and Stokes almost reluctantly accepted the congratulations of his incredulous team-mates. On the sidelines, coach Brendon McCullum put his hand over his eyes, laughed and shook his head at the madness of it all.
‘He’s a freak,’ said England assistant coach Jeetan Patel of Stokes. ‘It was almost written in the stars. People were probably flicking on the TV at home and the first thing they saw is Ben Stokes bowling a really good delivery to Rohit Sharma. It’s great to see him back bowling but we’ll just have to make sure we don’t push him too far.’
It will not, of course, change the outcome of this final chapter of this series — and India, at 473 for eight by the close and 255 ahead, could even win in three days if England fold as rapidly and meekly today as in their selfdestructive first innings.
But it was one of his Superman signs that Stokes really can get back to where he was before more than a year of pain with his knee restricted his role to batsman and captain. And, as a consequence, England can be a much better-balanced side again.
There were, to be fair, other reasons for England to be a little cheerful yesterday after a long two months in India that will end with the first phase of the Stokes and McCullum Bazball project having to come to terms with their first serious setback.
In the over after Stokes had delivered a ball that pitched middle and off and shaped away to bowl Sharma for 103, Jimmy Anderson produced another beauty to take out the off-stump of India’s other century maker in Shubman Gill for his 699th Test wicket.
Then, after debutant Devdutt Padikkal, a late replacement for the injured Rajat Patidar, and the exciting Sarfaraz Khan had again flexed India’s muscles in a stand of 97 for the fourth wicket, England’s finds of this series displayed considerable character of their own.
Whatever else has happened here, England have at least found two spinners they can work with at the highest level and Shoaib Bashir and Tom Hartley kept persevering in tandem to gain more precious experience and even more precious wickets.
The 20- year- old Bashir is certainly a success story. He had kept his head when Yashasvi Jaiswal had launched a brutal assault on him on day one to claim his wicket and now he added three more in only his third Test to follow his five-wicket haul in Ranchi.
He may have been smashed for eight sixes in the innings but Bashir kept coming back for more and deserved his rewards.
‘We spoke before play and I said to Bash, “Why not show off today”,’ said former New Zealand off-spinner Patel. ‘“What does it matter? It’s the last game you’re going to play for six weeks and it’s a great chance to show the world the skills you’ve got”.
‘That was a tough day for Bash, or anyone, but he hasn’t had the scars from previous games and that’s exciting. He’s fantastic. He’s going to have to keep learning and the curve will have to keep going up but there’s a real sense that he’s in the backyard having fun with his mates. And that’s what we want.’
Hartley deserved his rewards, too. He did not extract anything like the spin gained by India’s three world- class slow bowlers on the first day but the Lancastrian stuck at it to take the wickets of Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin in the same over and now has an impressive 22 victims in his first Test series.
If five wickets after tea can be considered little more than straws to clutch, at least they were in contrast to a first session that saw England go wicketless and Sharma and Gill both advance to three figures.
It was Sharma’s 12th Test century, with a missed chance by Zak Crawley at leg-slip off Bashir on 68 its only flaw, but it was Gill who shone the most brightly, hitting five sixes in his 110 and doffing his cap and bowing to his dressing room when he reached his hundred.
At lunch, with India having added 129 in rapid time, England were down and all but out. The wheels were coming off and all hope had virtually gone.
They clawed back a degree of respectability over the rest of the day, with Stokes the catalyst. However, barring a miracle greater than anything we have seen even from the England captain, this last Test is well beyond them now.