The way Ben Stokes’s team play does not feel up for debate any more. They do it their way, with gumption, and if you don’t like gumption you don’t have to watch. And if you watch, you must be prepared to take your tablespoon of cold, glutinous cod liver oil alongside your cakes and ale.
England have played two Tests on this tour of India, both from the now-familiar blueprint. They won the first at Hyderabad, incredibly, against all precedent, coaxing from Tom Hartley – a man on Test debut who had a first‑innings bowling debut to fold, fold, and fold again before pressing into the dirt – astonishing second-innings figures of seven for 62. Ollie Pope’s 196, one of the great innings™, under pressure on a turning pitch, led the second‑innings fightback. India, who had never lost at home with a first-innings advantage of three figures, watched open-mouthed, their body language dropping into their boots.
And then England lost the second Test on the fourth afternoon at the ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium. They did that with brio too, with the coach apparently telling the players not to worry and that they could chase down 600. This time they didn’t pull it off, but the memory of that first-Test achievement obviously affected India’s thought processes, as shown in Rohit Sharma’s defensive field settings against Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett as they set off on their quest on Sunday evening.
Stokes was phlegmatic and unrepentant: “We were full of confidence, as we always are. We knew we had to get 330 more runs and the big thing for us was asserting our authority very early and try to not let them settle. Credit to Rohit and the bowlers that every time we dragged the momentum back, they were able to take a wicket and drag it back.”
Defeat always leaves space for nit-picking. Crawley played a rash shot in the first innings when well set – but, when asked about it, said it was just the way he plays, and that he’s a much better player now than when he was fiddling around for an average in the 20s. Nor was Joe Root’s second‑innings 16 one for the purists. He arrived at the crease ready for instant attack rather than his familiar nurdle and nip, two reverse sweeps for four in his first three balls followed by an off‑balance dance and swipe with resultant top-edge – as those in the TNT Sports studio diplomatically put it: “It wasn’t a percentage shot for him.”
But he had a finger to protect and – despite how it might feel – his average is actually better under Stokes than before: 52.63 to 49.64. The truth is that this Test will be remembered for Jasprit Bumrah’s eye‑popping spell of bowling in the first innings – and Pope’s stump annihilation.
One of the big differences between the sides used to be that England favoured the knackered old pro with a bucketload of experience and India the young ingenue such as the 22-year-old Yashasvi Jaiswal, who made a double hundred in his first innings – but both sides are now throwing in youth with equal abandon.
Where India had the 24‑year‑old Shubman Gill and Jaiswal, England have the 19‑year‑old Rehan Ahmed, 20-year-old Shoaib Bashir and 24-year-old Hartley. The thought of going into a Test in India with three spinners whose experience added up to a bag of buttons and a gob stopper is extraordinary. But, somehow, Stokes made it work.
“No it wasn’t a challenge whatsoever,” Stokes said after the game. “I absolutely loved it. Tom, Bash, Rehan, I think they have five or six Test matches between them, to put in that performance that they did yesterday … what they were able to produce in terms of effort and output was incredible. They showed a lot of maturity and skill beyond their years … I’m very proud of them as a captain.”
So to Gujarat at 1-1. The third Test starts on 15 February, with some down time in Abu Dhabi for the players with the families in between. This time England don’t travel to Narendra Modi’s palace of homage at Ahmedabad but to Rajkot, where there are happy memories from 2016 when Root scored 124 and Stokes 128. England then played three spinners called Adil Rashid, Moeen Ali and Zafar Ansari.
There is much to relish, from Ravichandran Ashwin’s wait for his 500th Test wicket to Virat Kohli’s possible return. From Ben Foakes’s glovework to Bumrah’s box-office bursts. From Sharma’s hands-on-hips agitation over DRS decisions to Stokes’s laidback utter belief. It’s just a shame we’ve got to wait another 10 days for it all to begin again.
