Ben Stokes, the captain of England, is very happy with pacer Josh Tongue. In the second innings of the one-off Test against Ireland at Lord’s, Tongue took a fantastic five wickets. The 25-year-old took over when James Anderson, Jofra Archer, and Ollie Robinson weren’t there.
After England beat their neighbors by 10 wickets at Lord’s, Stokes said that Tongue did his job perfectly and talked about how versatile he was and how he was ready to bowl in any situation.
“I told him what I wanted him to do on this team as our third seamer, and I used him in different ways to get different types of bowling from him. In his first over, he came on and pitched the ball up really well.
“Then, we tried to use his speed to make him the attacker when we needed to, but the wicket became a bit flat. According to a Ben Stokes quote from Cricbuzz, “For him to show he can bowl in more than one way is great for us as a team going forward, knowing we’ve found someone else who can fill the role of the guys with the extra pace.”
“Bowling the long spell yesterday and two long spells today, I wasn’t sure how to handle him so early on, but I was very, very impressed with how he just agreed to do what I wanted him to do,” the 32-year-old said.
Tongue was very unlucky not to get a wicket in the first test.
The captain also said that Tongue’s first inning against Ireland was full of bad luck. The Worcestershire fast bowler hit his line and length well, but he didn’t get any wickets. However, Stokes claimed that in the second inning, when his speed finally shocked the Andrew Balbirnie-led team, he earned his reward.
“It was very bad luck that he didn’t get a wicket in the first innings, but he made up for it in the second.” I told him to just run in and do what he usually does, and I’d take care of the rest. The captain said, “Let the kid go out and bowl the way that got him here in the first place.”
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