Ben Stokes believes “the sky is the limit” for his young spinners as he spoke of his pride despite watching England’s hopes of a famous series victory over India go up in smoke.
The hosts took an unassailable 3-1 series lead thanks to a five-wicket triumph in Ranchi, but only after being given a scare by the novice pair of Tom Hartley and Shoaib Bashir, the latter of whom finished with eight wickets in the match.
Having seen England’s collapse on day three leave a target of just 192 for victory, India looked to be cruising at 84 without loss, but lost a flurry of wickets to the spin duo either side of lunch to slump to 120 for five, before Shubman Gill and Dhruv Jurel rode to the rescue with a clutch partnership to guide Rohit Sharma’s side home.
“I think it was a great Test match,” said Stokes, reflecting on his first series defeat since taking charge as captain. “You look at scoreboard, India win by five wickets [but] I don’t think it gives enough credit to the game as a whole. The amount of ebbs and flows, every single day that happened.
“I’ve got to give so much credit to our spinners, to Tom Hartley and Shoaib Bashir. To come out and put in that performance, throughout the whole Test match but in particular today. Being exposed in situations like that at such an early stage of their career is incredible. I couldn’t be more proud of those two.”
Both Hartley and Bashir came into the tour as uncapped, wildcard picks but by the start of the Fourth Test were left as England’s only surviving specialist spinners, with both Jack Leach and Rehan Ahmed having flown home.
Part-timer Joe Root made the initial breakthrough on the fourth morning by removing the dangerous Yashasvi Jaiswal with the help of a diving James Anderson catch, but it was the dismissal of Rohit on 55 that gave England genuine belief, Hartley rewarded for a fine spell with the wicket of the home captain.
Bashir, who had claimed the first five-wicket haul of his career in the first innings, then had the struggling Rajat Patidar caught at short-leg in the very next over, before striking with each of his first two deliveries after lunch, removing first Ravindra Jadeja and then Sarfaraz Khan, the latter for a golden duck.
"It should be very intimidating for two young spinners at the start of their career to come out on day four to try and bowl India out for a small target,” Stokes added. “Not once did they take a backwards step. Not once did you look at their body language or enthusiasm towards the game and think that we were beat.
"Shoaib Bashir, wow. What a story, what a journey. Coming here, taking eight wickets in the game, his first five-wicket haul as a professional - in a Test match in India. The sky is the limit for that guy. I’m very, very proud of him.”
Despite their late rally, England must ultimately reflect on a wasted opportunity to set up a series-decider in Dharamshala next month, having been well on top when India were reduced to 177 for seven in reply to the tourists’s first innings 353.
Player of the match Jurel’s 90 kept the contest in the balance, before a dismal second innings display with the bat saw England lose their final seven wickets for just 35 runs and blow the chance to set up a daunting chase.
“I don’t want to say impossible because I don’t think anything’s impossible - but that was incredibly hard yesterday,” Stokes said in defence of his team’s failure. “When you look at [Ravichandran] Ashwin, Jadeja and Kuldeep [Yadav] and conditions are in their favour like that, that’s very tough for any team to go out and keep the scoreboard ticking and rotate the strike. Skill-vs-skill, their skill was better than ours on this occasion.”
India remain unbeaten in home series in well over a decade, but on this occasion have had to scrap hard and weather the absences of a number of key players.
Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant and Mohammed Shami have played no part in the series, while Jasprit Bumrah was rested in Ranchi, leaving Rohit to hail the likes of Jurel, Sarfaraz and seamer Akash Deep for filling the void.
"These guys are proven players in all sorts of conditions and to come and fill their shoes was not easy,” the Indian captain said. “When you make a mark like that, you hold yourself in a good position for a long career ahead.”
