Ben Stokes's destructive takedown of India's Nadeem Shahbaz should set alarm bells ringing...

[ASFN Admin]

An alarm buzzes now when a bowler oversteps the crease and the third or television umpire signals a no-ball. But Australians tuning into the first Test of the India v England Test series may have heard and seen another cause for alarm. While Joe Root gave his third consecutive master-class in batting, Ben Stokes gave a master-class in how to drag down a spinner and take him out of contention and maybe the series, when he assaulted India’s left-armer Nadeem Shahbaz. This assault by Stokes had implications beyond this Test series and even the World Test Championship final. If he can take down a spinner in Chennai - India’s third-choice left-armer, but bowling in conditions that were all in the bowler’s favour - he might be able to do the same in the Ashes later this year. And what a profound impact that would have. India’s attritional attitude towards batting against Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood got them back into their recent Test series in Australia after they had been dismissed for 36, but what clinched the fourth Test in Brisbane, and the series with it, was their assault on Nathan Lyon on the final day. In cricket’s conditional context, the ball turning away from the batsman is more considered more difficult except perhaps when the ball is turning prodigiously. Stokes v Lyon is therefore tipped in the bowler’s favour by conventional standards, but not by new ones, born of T20. When Rishabh Pant, India’s lefthanded batsman-cum-keeper, ran down the Gabba pitch to cart Lyon over mid-wicket, he pointed up what Stokes could do - which would then, by taking Lyon out of Australia’s attack, place even more weight on Australia’s three seamers.

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