Stokes shared the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy with counterpart Shubman Gill
There have been series betweenIndia and England that were riveting, but none like the rechristened Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy 2025 where drama reached a whole new level of consistency.
While the drama and controversies piled up, it was only complemented by the fierce battle between the ball and the bat across all four Tests.
For England, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Zak Crawley, Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett and Jamie Smith contributed heavily in taking the lead of the series twice. For the visiting Indian team, Shubman Gill dominated the run charts, while KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar and Mohammed Siraj along with Jasprit Bumrah and Akash Deep pulled India out of trouble on multiple occasions.
The verbal volleys between Crawley and Gill in the dying moments of the Lord’s Test fired up the hosts to tear the Indian batting order to shreds, the badly-judged catch of eventual centurion Harry Brook didn’t deter Indian bowlers from making an unbelievable comeback in the final Test.
As the curtain fell on the series where spoils were shared 2-2, Stokes specified one single aspect that made the series memorable – players daring injuries and still performing.
First it was Rishabh Pant at Lord’s batting with an injury finger and then in Manchester where he limped for singles after fracturing his foot. At Lord’s, young off-spinner Shoaib Bashir battled through the pain of a fractured finger and bowled the famous ball that spun back on to Siraj’s stumps to win the match for England.
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On Monday morning, it was Chris Woakes who walked out as the last man despite the excruciating pain of a dislocated shoulder and managed to run three runs with one hand completely restricted by a sling.
Stokes, who sat out of the Oval Test due to injury concerns, listed these as his highlights of the series.
“Unbelievable but it was never going to be a question, Rishabh Pant batting with broken foot, Shoaib Bashir bowling with broken finger and now Chris Woakes today,” Stokes said in the post-match press conference.
However, the star all-rounder didn’t rate the series above The Ashes.
“India versus England has always been a big rivalry but didn’t have the Ashes attachment,” added the 34-year-old.
Despite losing the fifth Test from a strong position of having seven wickets left, Stokes felt that England showed great character to fight till the end.
“Watching when you can’t do anything about it is different. But I thought the lads adapted well to the situation,” he said.
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