I felt privileged as a player at Essex that I was able to learn from the magnificent captaincy of Keith Fletcher – but I don’t think I’ve seen a better captain of spin in this country than Ben Stokes.
Those subtle changes in the field, the way he plays with the long on and long off, is fascinating to watch and yesterday it led to the dismissal of the dangerous Rishabh Pant.
When Shoaib Bashir was thrown the ball, Stokes had Ben Duckett right on the boundary behind the bowler’s arm, and Pant wasn’t interested in hitting down the ground.
So, Stokes moved him in 20 yards and a bit wider. Still, Pant wasn’t interested.
When he moved Duckett even wider before tea, the percentages were in the Indian left-hander’s favour – and it led to him banging a six.
Zak Crawley was very wide at that point, but when England regrouped for the evening session, and Stokes shifted him a tad straighter, making it closer to 50-50 in the batsman’s mind whether the shot was on.
I’ve not seen a better captain of spin in this country than Ben Stokes, writes Nasser Hussain
Woakes is an example of a bowler that needs overs under his belt to be performing at his best
Woakes reminded us of his main skill – hitting the top of off with a nip backer – in dismissing Nitish Kumar Reddy
Stokes wasn’t comprehensively saying to him: ‘Don’t play that shot, I’ve got men out there.’ He was using Crawley as a tempter.
Credit then to Bashir, who bowled the perfect middle and leg line for the field his captain set.
Pant couldn’t go inside out because of that line, so it forced him to hit towards long-on and the ball went straight to Crawley.
All those subtle changes play with a batter’s mind. Shall I? Shan’t I? If you’re faced with a lot of people on the boundary, the percentages aren’t in your favour, so you don’t always play the shot, even if you’re Rishabh Pant, but this particular field placement lured him into the trap.
You will often see Stokes, when a bowler gets hit for four or six, clapping, showing the bowler he’s got complete confidence in him.
At times at Headingley last week, when he removed the slip to Pant, the camera panned to Stokes and there seemed to be some doubt about his natural attacking instinct.
Pant sort of played with him a bit during that brilliant hundred. Here, Stokes played with Pant.
On two flat pitches, wickets have been hard to come by so far and the start of this series has been a reminder that bowlers aren’t machines.
Chris Woakes, 36, claimed two wickets while India captain Shubman Gill hit 114 at Edgbaston
In the second innings Woakes’ zip was back and the ball carried over the top of the stumps
England were held up by Gill but their bowlers fought well on day one of the second Test
Especially someone of Chris Woakes’ age. At 36, he’s going to take even more time to get up to speed.
Woakes is a classic example of a bowler that needs overs under his belt to be performing at his best whereas others like Mark Wood, for example, can come back from injury and bowl rockets as if they’ve never been away.
With Woakes the more he bowls, the better he gets. So I wasn’t concerned at all with the first innings at Headingley – sun out, flat pitch, you pretty much got what you expected.
In the second innings there, even though he didn’t get many wickets, that zip was back and the ball was carrying over the top of the stumps.
The speed he bowled wasn’t different, but the actual zip off the pitch and the rhythm he was developing was.
This was another flat one, but Edgbaston is his home ground and in returning figures of 21-6-59-2 he was excellent. He will bowl worse and get more wickets.
There has been plenty of recent talk whether or not Woakes can make next winter’s Ashes
Zak Crawley was very wide but Stokes moved him when England regrouped for the evening
He would have had more yesterday but for Sharfuddoulah, a not-outer of an umpire, standing at the City End. You could see how frustrated Woakes got with the two LBW decisions that went marginally against him on review.
Inducing an inside edge from KL Rahul was just reward for his efforts and then, in the evening, he reminded us of his main skill – hitting the top of off with a nip backer – in dismissing Nitish Kumar Reddy.
There has been plenty of talk whether or not Woakes can make next winter’s Ashes, but as far as I am concerned selection decisions for that series are months away yet.
What would concern me a bit about taking him to Australia, though, is that there is only one intra-squad warm-up game out there and you don’t want him going into a series like that having had a long lay-off, playing catch-up.
