Ben Stokes was bowled by Ravichandran Ashwin© X (Twitter)
England captain Ben Stokes, who didn’t have any answer to Jasprit Bumrah‘s inswinging delivery in the first innings of the first Test against India, was similarly bamboozled by Ravichandran Ashwin in the second innings. Facing the ace Indian spinner, Stokes was completely beaten by Ashwin’s magical delivery on Saturday. The England skipper failed to understand how Ashwin managed to beat him all ends up.
With England losing a plethora of wickets in the second session on Day 3, the onus was on Stokes to hold one end and stop the collapse. But, the all-rounder departed after scoring just 6 runs off 33 balls. Here’s the video:
R Ashwin to Ben Stokes
What a delivery #TeamIndia | #INDvENG | @ashwinravi99 | @IDFCFIRSTBank pic.twitter.com/sxBGnhmhl0
— BCCI (@BCCI) January 27, 2024
It was the 12th time in his Test career that Stokes had become Ashwin’s victim. In fact, no other bowler has managed to dismiss the England captain as many times in the longest format.
Getting the better of Stokes is nothing new for Ashwin. The India star has had the England stalwart’s number for a while now. Interestingly, Stokes is also the batter the off-spinner has dismissed the most; the English captain, alongside former Australia Test opener David Warner, was joint-tied at the first spot before this Test.
When it comes to such batter-bowler combos in Tests, the most a batter has been dismissed by a single bowler is England’s Michael Atherton by Australia’s Glenn McGrath (19 times). The now-retired Stuart Broad also managed to dismissed Australia’s David Warner, who recently played his last Test, a whopping 17 times.
Among Indian batters, Cheteshwar Pujara has been dismissed by Australia’s Nathan Lyon 13 times in his Test career.
Stokes’ departure strengthened India’s grip on the match considerably. The Indian team had already taken over the tourists a 190-run lead in the first innings.
Topics mentioned in this article
