STOKES' PRIDE AT 'INCREDIBLE' SPINNERS AFTER INDIA WRAP UP SERIES TRIUMPH

BEN STOKES believes “the sky is the limit” for his young spinners as he spoke of his pride this morning, despite watching England’s hopes of a famous series victory over India go up in smoke.

- Malik Ouzia

The hosts today 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 the 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.”