Ben Stokes has been a fan of Rishabh Pant and had his moment at Headingley when the wicketkeeper-batter charged down the ground against the England captain early in the first innings in Leeds.

Stokes reacted to Pant’s ploy with a hearty laugh.

“Even though he’s in opposition, I absolutely love watching Rishabh play cricket. I love the way he takes it on in all formats of the game. He’s got a bit of stickiness in his time, but that type of talent, when you let that type of talent be free, that’s what can happen as it did last week,” said Stokes.

Pant became the first Indian wicketkeeper to smash two hundreds in a Test match.

“Credit to him, two 100s in the game. We know we’re going to get our chances with the way that Rishabh plays. On a different day, it could have looked a little bit different. But, yeah, a very dangerous player,” said Stokes.

The England captain didn’t wish to get into the chatter surrounding Jasprit Bumrah’s availability for the second Test. “That’s India’s problem. They will deal with it. I am the captain of England.

“(They are a) good team. They always fight hard, come hard. Very passionate team,” Stokes said.

“It’s pretty clear that there’s always pressure on the shoulders of international sportsmen, but playing for India, especially in cricket, there’s probably a bit more. So, yeah, a very proud nation. Don’t take anything for granted from last week. We start at 0-0 again.”

But how is his body holding up after bowling 35 overs?

“I feel better now than I did on Thursday and Friday (laughs). Everyone was
very tired in that week... I used the three days after that game to offer absolutely nothing to the world.”