Bangladesh v England: Ben Stokes becoming a talisman

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England congratulate all-rounder Ben StokesImage source, AFP
Image caption,

Stokes is playing his 27th Test and has 68 wickets and 1,532 runs

After such a memorable match in Chittagong, the first day of the second Test certainly produced some more dramatic cricket.

When you think where Bangladesh were after lunch - 171-1 - to be bowled out for 220 is a real transformation.

I thought Bangladesh, who were just 23 runs short of their victory target in Chittagong, having never beaten England before, played it very well to start with.

From that Chittagong Test they realised England are vulnerable in these conditions and they thought they'd go out and chase them.

They played very aggressively, trying to set up a game to bowl England out twice.

Tamim played brilliantly for his 104 and had great support from Mominul Haque, who made 66 in that second-wicket partnership of 170.

It was the introduction of Ben Stokes that changed the game and he's a real talisman for England now.

He's feared by the opposition, deeply respected and he has earned it.

Man of the match in the first Test, he bowled brilliantly again, with 2-13 from 11 overs.

He switched ends to bowl from the far end and got his line right, he reverse swung the ball both ways, not much - just enough - and had them guessing.

Stokes just didn't give them anything and with the Bangladesh batsmen trying to be positive against Moeen at the other end, they got out and the spinner picked up 5-57.

You do bowl as a pair and those two teamed up brilliantly.

The worry for England is how they are going to rest Stokes, who contributes so much with bat, ball and in the field.

They rested Stuart Broad here ahead of the five-match series in India starting next month, but how are they going to give Stokes a break?

They are going to have to try. Yet how do you leave a player like Ben Stokes out of your team - you just can't do it.

You certainly wouldn't want to play him just as a batsman, so he's not going to have a break all winter I wouldn't think. He's going to be worn out by the end of the India Test series in mid-December.

It's possible they will rest him for the three one-day matches and Twenty20 internationals that start on 15 January but for now it's Tests all the way and England face a really hard tour of India, where they simply can't leave him out.

Stokes thrives on a heavy workload in any case. All-rounders are generally like that, they relish being in the game.

Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Since Ben Stokes, left, made his Test debut in December 2013, only two other Test cricketers worldwide have taken a minimum of 60 wickets & scored more than 750 runs - Moeen Ali, centre, and Stuart Broad (right)

Stokes gave England real control again with the ball from the one end and Moeen tightened up as well, improved his confidence and got into the wickets.

The three spinners were all a bit disappointing to start with, Tamim was positive against them and they didn't bowl very well.

They were picked off and easily milked for runs.

Left-arm spinner Zafar Ansari looked a bit nervous, which is perfectly understandable on Test debut, and Adil Rashid bowled a couple of nice googlies to the left-handers but overall they weren't creating any pressure.

They didn't bowl a maiden between them until about the 20th over they bowled as a unit, and that's an indication of the lack of control they had.

That still remains an issue but Moeen bowls good balls and gets people out.

It will continue to be a case of trying to get some consistency out of him and build pressure with maidens, but he is still England's number one spinner.

England lost early wickets again and the top order is struggling.

When you are batting and the ball is spinning you need a fair amount of luck to survive and, at the moment, England don't seem to have a lot of that, but then Bangladesh didn't either.

All it does is put into context how brilliantly Tamim played for his third hundred against England. We were very lucky to watch it.

Jonathan Agnew was speaking to BBC Sport's Jamie Lillywhite

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