The 2025 Manchester Test against India has produced a lot of Test records for the hosts England. After Joe Root created history, it was time for the English skipper Ben Stokes.
Leading the series by 2-1 at the end of the third Test, English captain Ben Stokes chose to field first in the fourth Test of the five-match home Test series against India (Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy 2025) at Old Trafford in Manchester.
2025 Manchester Test: Captain Ben Stokes recorded a five-wicket haul
In the first innings of the Test match, India scored 358 all out, where the English captain recorded his first Test fifer as a captain. Stokes’ 5/72 figures against India in the Manchester Test ended his almost eight-year wait for a Test fifer, as he recorded his previous one in September 2017 against West Indies at Lord’s with the bowling figures of 6/22.
2025 Manchester Test: Captain Ben Stokes recorded a century
Later, England scored 669 all out in their first innings of the Manchester Test, as England earned a lead of 311 runs. While Joe Root scored 150 runs, the English captain Ben Stokes scored 141 runs. It was Stokes’ first Test century in the last two years, as his previous Test century was against Australia in the 2023 Lord’s Test.
With that century, Stokes became the fifth Test captain to record a century and a fifer in the same Test match. While he was the first English Test captain to achieve this record, it happened for the first time in more than 42 years, after January 1983.
Captains with century and five-wicket haul in same Test match
Player (Team) | Performances (only 100 & 5-wk haul) | Opposition | Venue | Year |
Denis Atkinson (West Indies) | 219 & 5/56 | Australia | Bridgetown | 1955 |
Sir Garry Sobers (West Indies) | 174 & 5/41 | England | Leeds | 1966 |
Mushtaq Mohammad (Pakistan) | 121 & 5/28 | West Indies | Port of Spain | 1977 |
Imran Khan (Pakistan) | 117 & 5/82 | India | Faisalabad | 1983 |
Ben Stokes (England) | 141 & 5/72 | India | Manchester | 2025 |
