After receiving flak on social media, former India cricketer R Ashwin justified his criticism of England skipper Ben Stokes. His first remarks cast doubt on Stokes' batting prowess, but the England skipper reacted with a brilliant display in the fourth Test at Manchester, where he amassed 141 runs and claimed five wickets, demonstrating his value as one of cricket's best all-rounders.

Since it was Stokes' first century in more than two years, it was especially noteworthy. He showed exceptional skill against India's bowling attack and began the second day on 77 runs. He paid emotional homage to his late father after reaching his hundred with a leg-glanced four off Jasprit Bumrah.

R Ashwin had previously questioned Ben Stokes’ batting approach while analyzing the game on his YouTube channel.

"Ben Stokes is a fabulous player. I take my hat off to him. But we need to remember one thing. Barring that Headingley heroics in the Ashes, what has he achieved as a batter?" he had said on his show Ash ki Baat.

As Stokes hit a sublime century, Ashwin started receiving criticism for his words on the England captain, and despite all, Ashwin stated that he never questioned Stokes’ class as a batter. He further added that Stokes scored his first century in Tests in 2 years as he applied himself and played proper Test cricket instead of slogging it all around.

"Arrey sir ji, no one doubted his class! He got his first fifer after 2017, this game a hundred after 2 years! This has come because of his traditional test [sic] match approach to batting and not the carefree one he had adopted before this,” Ashwin replied to a X post mentioning him.

Stokes gave a historic performance in the Manchester Test so far. Thanks to this century, Stokes became just the fourth English player to take five wickets and make a century. Along with Jacques Kallis and Sir Garfield Sobers, he became just the third player in Test history to reach 7,000 runs and 200 wickets, placing him in an elite group of cricketers.