Stokes in awe of Root’s ability to play spinners

Playing in his 100th Test, Root compiled his fifth double century on the second day of the opening Test against India here, reaching the milestone with a six off spinner Ravichandran Ashwin. Stokes, too, played his part in making a fine 82.

“Yeah, it makes us all feel, you know, pretty rubbish (laughs), the way he makes batting look. And yeah, I was quite surprised when he ran down the wicket and hit a six to bring up a double century,” Stokes said during a virtual press conference.

“He is in phenomenal form and just makes things look very, very easy. The way he plays spin and dominates it is incredible to watch. I don’t think half the England batsmen ever play spin in the way that he does. He is just got options, he has got an option for everything that’s thrown at him and yeah, it is just a delight to watch him at the moment,” Stokes added about his skipper, who is enjoying an incredible run of form.

Thanks to Root’s monumental 218 and Stokes’s knock, England reached 555 for eight by stumps, and the all-rounder had no qualms in admitting that his team was in a very strong position. “Yeah, it is nice coming back in with a knock like that, with a bit of time off and now spending some time out in the middle. But all in all, I think we are in a very strong position as a team. Batting first and after putting ourselves in and being 500 or whatever we are, still with two wickets remaining going into day three is very strong position,” Stokes said. He said that the England team was not at all thinking about declaration on Saturday evening.

“There were no thoughts whatsoever of a declaration because it will be stupid. If you won the toss and bat first, you just get as many runs as you can out here in India. And if we can bat for another hour on Sunday, we would be very happy with that,” he added. England is aware of the fact that it would also have to toil for wickets over the next couple of days.

“We know thvwwwat we still have got a lot of hard work to do as a bowling unit because it is tough to take 20 wickets anywhere. But you know out here, sometimes 20 wickets are hard to come by. So, we know we have got a big challenge ahead of us,” Stokes said.