The recently elected new Test captain of the England cricket team, Ben Stokes, has created a ruckus with the bat as he entered the season of County Cricket Championship.
The prolific all-rounder played an impressive inning of 161 runs for Durham while batting against Warwickshire County Cricket Club in the County Championship Division 2.
As part of his inning, he scored 34 runs in one over. Ben Stokes hit consecutive sixes in the first 5 balls against left-arm spin bowler Josh Baker, playing for Warwickshire, after which he could not manage to do so on the last ball but scored 4 runs. It was the 117th over of the match in which Durham’s batsmen had already exhausted the Warwickshire bowlers.
Before that over, Ben Stokes’s score was 70 runs in 59 balls and he was in the mood to bat very aggressively. After which spin bowler Josh Baker became his victim and hit him for 5 consecutive sixes. He hit the first ball of the over over long on and after that the next ball was carried towards deep mid wicket in the stadium.
After this, in the next 3 balls, Stokes played towards straight. After hitting 5 Sixes in 5 balls for 30 runs, he could not make it 6 out 6 and the last ball was hit for a boundary only. As part of the over, Stokes also completed his century from just 64 balls at the end of the over. But, the new England Test captain did not stop as Stokes went on to score 161 runs in 88 balls, which also included 8 fours and 17 sixes.
As Test captain, all-rounder Ben Stokes is to play a 3-match Test series against New Zealand in June 2022 at home, for which the visiting team has already been announced. At the same time, after this, Stokes has to captain the team in the only Test match postponed against India last year.
With regard to which, in the beginning of this Test series, where Joe Root has captained England in 4 Test matches, Virat Kohli led the Indian team in those matches. However, things have changed from then, now both the teams will play under the leadership of their new captain. While Ben Stokes will lead the England team, Rohit Sharma will lead the Indian side.