Ben Stokes has struggled to pick up Jasprit Bumrah’s pace, reckons Michael Atherton

Stokes has been dismissed twice in four innings of the two Tests so far by Bumrah, who has cleaned up the southpaw on both instances.

Visakhapatnam: Former England captain Michael Atherton reckons incumbent skipper Ben Stokes has struggled to pick up the pace off Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah in the ongoing five-Test series.

Stokes has been dismissed twice in four innings of the two Tests so far by Bumrah, who has cleaned up the southpaw on both instances.

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“Picking with the speed of the ball is tough with him (Bumrah), and I’ve noticed with Stokes, even Stokes is an excellent player of fast bowling. He’s hurried with Bumrah,” Atherton was quoted as saying by Sky Cricket.

“He struggles to pick up the pace and a couple of times when he’s (Bumrah) got him, it looks as though the ball has kept low, which has, but it also almost beaten him for pace as well. I think that’s the issue with Bumrah.” Bumrah, who has snaffled 15 wickets in the first two Tests, returned 6/45 in the first innings of the second Test and among the highlights was his yorker to Ollie Pope, on which Atherton admitted that there was hardly anything that the batter could have done about it.

“It was spectacular (yorker) wasn’t it? I don’t see what Pope could’ve done with that. It was an unbelievable image as Pope walked back,” he added.

India won the second Test by 106 runs to draw level in the series 1-1.

The third Test will be played at Rajkot from February 15.