STOKES RESCUES ENGLAND FROM IGNOMINY
IT wasn’t so long ago that a Test win over Bangladesh would have been greeted with a shrug of the shoulders and a glance at the fixture list to see who was up next. But the jubilation among England’s players as the giant screen at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury stadium confirmed that Ben Stokes had trapped No 11 Shafiul Islam on the final morning of a pulsating series opener spoke for itself. Victory by just 22 runs left captain Alastair Cook lauding Stokes’ ‘X-factor’, and Test cricket’s youngest nation with its head in its hands. You needed a heart of stone not to feel for Bangladesh. The hosts began needing 33 runs to complete only their eighth win in 94 Tests, and their first over serious opposition. England required two wickets to avoid one of their worst defeats. Cook later said he started the day ‘fairly confident’, but English cricket’s native pessimism presumably meant not all his compatriots agreed. With the right men given the ball — Stuart Broad at one end and Stokes at the other — the first three overs produced ten breathless, frantic runs from Sabbir Rahman and Taijul Islam. But Taijul, perhaps carelessly, pinched the strike for the start of the fourth. Stokes charged in. With the first delivery he hit the left-handed Taijul, shuffling across his stumps, on the pads and expelled an appeal that must have startled the local crows. Kumar Dharmasena shook his head, which must have encouraged England, so fallible has he been. Once more, Hawk-Eye reversed his call. Two balls later, Stokes had an appeal upheld when Shafiul was so late dealing with a delivery that Dharmasena ruled he had not offered a shot. ‘The guy is that X-factor cricketer that every side would love to have,’ said a grateful Cook. England’s euphoria, however, could not mask their flaws, and Cook admitted there would be changes for the second Test beginning on Friday. As he put it: ‘I was pleased with our performance. It wasn’t our best but it’s a start.’ The batting, which was twice rescued by the middle order, is set to remain untouched. That is bad news for Lancashire’s teenage opener Haseeb Hameed and better news for Gary Ballance, whose only contribution here came at short leg. But the seam-bowling rotation policy means that Broad, who is on 99 Test caps, or Chris Woakes could be replaced by Steven Finn or Jake Ball — or even both.