Ben Stokes awestruck by Sam Curran's all-round performance in Edgbaston

Sam Curran made his Test debut at Headingley in Leeds against Pakistan, however, couldn’t make much of an impact. While he scored 20 runs lower down the order, he picked up Shadab Khan in both the innings. He was also drafted into the squad for the first Test of England’s match against India at Edgbaston in Birmingham and he didn’t disappoint by any stretch of the imagination.

The 20-year-old eventually was crowned as the Player of the Match following his team’s 31-run victory against Virat Kohli’s men. In the first innings, the left-arm seamer picked up three wickets in quick succession after Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan put on a partnership of 50 runs to take India off to a steady start. Thereafter, he came back to dismiss Hardik Pandya to pick up a four-wicket-haul.

Even while batting in England’s first innings, he scored 24 useful runs before being dismissed by Mohammed Shami. In the second innings, the Brits, at one stage, were reeling at 87/7 after Ishant Sharma inflicted mayhem by chipping in with three wickets in the 31st over. Curran showed tremendous guts and notched his maiden half-century in Whites.

Stokes heaps praise on Curran

He eventually racked up 63 runs from 65 balls, a knock laced by nine boundaries and a couple of sixes. He built a couple of important stands of 48 and 41 along with Adil Rashid and Stuart Broad respectively to help England set a tricky target of 194 runs for the visiting team to track down. During India’s run chase, he accounted for the crucial wicket of Ajinkya Rahane.

Meanwhile, Ben Stokes was ecstatic after the superlative victory and he hailed Curran for his all-round performance. The all-rounder himself had a tremendous match, especially with the leather as he picked up six wickets in the match, including the one of Virat Kohli in the second innings.

He took to Twitter and wrote, “Who would waste there time watching Test Match Cricket ehh, especially with @CurranSM coming on the scene, what a game for the youngster #gun”

Here is Stokes’ tweet

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