England’s man of crisis, Ben Stokes showcased yet another reason why he is called so as he castled a well-set Rohit Sharma on his return to bowling in international cricket on Friday, March 8. 

Watch how Ben Stokes gets rid of Rohit Sharma on his return to bowling:

Stokes brought himself on in the second over after lunch and struck with the very first ball he delivered. The ball landed on its seam and jagged away ever so slightly. Rohit was beaten by the seam movement and lost his off-stump.

Many England players were taken aback by the delivery and were in awe of the feat Stokes achieved. Mark Wood, and Ben Duckett among others were pleasantly amused and shared a laugh with their skipper who gave a very plain reaction to Rohit’s wicket.

Notably, this is the first time Stokes has bowled after undergoing successful knee surgery in November last year after the culmination of the ODI World Cup. He underwent rigorous rehabilitation and training to attain full fitness and started bowling in the nets leading into the Dharamsala Test.

Aware of his limited capacity as a player, England had picked him in their World Cup squad – a decision that bore fruit for them. Stokes finished the World Cup with a total of 304 runs and was England’s second-leading run-getter in the marquee tournament.

The southpaw scored two fifties and a century in the tournament and helped the Three Lions qualify for the ICC Champions Trophy 2025.

India’s playing XI: 

Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Devdutt Padikkal, Ravindra Jadeja, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah

England’s playing XI:

 Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Ben Stokes (c), Jonny Bairstow, Ben Foakes (wk), Tom Hartley, Shoaib Bashir, Mark Wood, James Anderson