Veteran Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin yet again frustrated England captain Ben Stokes in the just-concluded five-match Test series by making him his bunny. England, desperate for a series win in India since 2012/13, relied heavily on Stokes' leadership. The southpaw, who was returning from an injury layoff, began brightly by scoring 70 in the first innings of the opening Test, which England won. However, their fortunes quickly turned as they lost the remaining four matches against India, with Stokes failing to convert his early starts into substantial scores.
Ben Stokes' batting struggles
Over the next nine innings, Stokes' struggles against Indian spin became undeniable. He repeatedly fell short of 15 runs, looking particularly vulnerable against Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, and Kuldeep Yadav. Ashwin cemented his dominance by dismissing Stokes twice in the series – once in the first Test and again in the final match. These dismissals brought Ashwin's total to 13 Test wickets of Stokes.
Ashwin vs Stokes
Ashwin's twin dismissals of Stokes in the series solidified his dominance over the English captain. With these wickets, Ashwin has now dismissed Stokes a staggering 13 times in Test cricket. In a recent interview, the Indian spinner shed light on his strategy against Stokes. He revealed that during the dismissal in the fifth Test, he noticed Stokes being particularly wary of getting trapped leg before wicket (LBW).
Ashwin reveals Stokes' batting woes
“I just felt like when Stokes gets into these very defensive shells, he allows you to come a little fuller and wider on occasions because he’s worried so much about the LBW. His bat is almost, pointing down to the ground that he gets into the zones of literally being extra tight and he could just lunge forward to every single ball on those occasions,” the 37-year-old told Indian Express.
“In Hyderabad he wanted to play a lot of the back-foot. It was the slowest surface that I’ve seen in all these years of playing cricket. So when the ball turns, it just beats your bat and doesn’t hit the stump. So Stokes was hanging back. That’s the same load he found himself in Ranchi," he added.
Ashwin also noted that Stokes' front foot was moving farther than usual.
“Over here, I felt his front foot was moving farther than usual — because he wanted to hit and at the same time, get to lunch. So I just wanted to keep the line a little outside offs-stump to see if you would lunge. And my intention was to get him out LBW. If you look at the replay also you’ll find that the bat is close to the pad. Only the upper half was a little open. And the ball found enough bounce and deviation to just get between bat and pad at that top half. My intention was to get him out LBW, but the bounce enabled me to get through the transit,” Ashwin concluded.
The series saw contrasting fortunes for Ashwin and Stokes. Ashwin emerged as the bowling hero, claiming a staggering 26 wickets across the five Tests, making him the leading wicket-taker in the series. In stark contrast, Stokes' batting faltered, mustering only 199 runs in 10 innings, with an average that dipped below 20.
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