Not seen a more competitive England cricketer than Stokes: Hussain

Australia recorded a 43-run win against England in a hard-fought battle at the Home of Cricket to go 2-0 up in the five-match Ashes series in London on Sunday, July 2.

In pursuit of 371 runs, Ben Stokes played an unbelievable knock of 155 runs to single-handedly get the home team close to the target. While he fell agonisingly short in the final session, Nasser Hussain heaped praises on the southpaw and stated the skipper epitomised the value of playing for England cricket. 

"Ben Stokes showed his colleagues in the dressing room what playing for his England team is all about on Sunday - and there is no better cricketer in my era in that kind of situation. Ask me who I would want to be at the crease from the past 30 years, and it would be Stokes," Hussain said in his column for Daily Mail. 

"He has done it so many times, whether it be the World Cup final, World Twenty20 final or Headingley four years ago, and it was remarkable on Sunday that he almost added another match-winning masterclass to his portfolio. That was a truly incredible innings."

"I haven't seen a more competitive England cricketer in my time than Stokes, and it's amazing too how often he gets the ball out of the middle of the bat in these kinds of situations when all the fielders are on the rope. If he doesn't clear them, he gets it in the gaps," he further added. 

The former England skipper also believes that if England had displayed a bit more game awareness, they would have been 2-0 up in the series. 

"Maybe Viv Richards is the only cricketer I have seen able to hit the ball into the gap or out of the ground as well as Stokes. Greatness is a word we use with Viv. It's one fitting too for Stokes."

"Stokes almost pulled that off, and if England had just been a tad more street-smart across these first two Ashes Tests, they could be 2-0 up, not 2-0 down, heading to Headingley," he concluded. 

The third Ashes Test will begin on Thursday, July 6, at Headingley.