Ben Stokes speaks up on 'too good' Noman-Sajid combination

England Test captain Ben Stokes heaped praises on the spin combination of Sajid Khan and Noman Ali for leading Pakistan to a home Test series victory after nearly four years.

The spin combination of Sajid Khan and Noman Ali, who replaced Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah, gave the struggling hosts new hope after Pakistan’s decision to make four changes following the first Test crushing.

In the final two Test matches, the spin combination captured 39 of 40 England wickets, and their timed and convenient cameos further shattered the visitors
Pakistan won their first home Test series since February 2021 when they defeated South Africa 2-0.

Sajid Khan and Noman Ali also received words of acknowledgement from England captain Ben Stokes, who termed them ‘too good’ to tackle by his aggressive batting lineup, which racked up a humongous total of 823/7d in the first innings of the opening Test against Pakistan.

“You’ve got to hold your hands up to say that those two in particular were obviously too good for our batting line-up in those last two games,” Stokes said.

“Credit to Noman and Sajid, the way in which they bowled in the second Test match and in this game, you know it was very good and challenging,” he added.

Ben Stokes responded to the series loss by saying that losing games for England is painful and upsetting before emphasizing the importance of consistency.

“Losing games for England hurts so it’s disappointing,” said Ben Stokes.

“We need to do things for longer. As I said, we did good things in very small amounts of times at certain points throughout the second game and this game. But when you don’t sustain that, you know you’re always going to start falling away,” Ben Stokes added.