Well played, Ben Stokes: England’s larger-than-life cricketing hero

The retirement of Ben Stokes from international cricket brings down the curtain on the career of a cricketer who was revered around the world. A brilliant player who could walk into any top national side, Stokes was undoubtedly one of the leading all rounders in the world in contemporary cricket. As captain of the England side for Test matches, he teamed up with Brendon McCullum and transformed the team from a listless lot to a staid players to an enterprising bunch of successful cricketers in a short span of time.

Despite all this, controversy, mostly on account of off the field incidents, followed him throughout his career and ultimately contributed in substantial measure to his decision to call it “quits”. It can be said without an iota of doubt that, after the great Ian Botham, no cricketer from England has won the love and appreciation of followers the sport the world over in the manner of Stokes.

Stokes spent the first 12 years of his life in New Zealand, where his father worked as a rugby coach, before the family moved to England in 1993. He came through the ranks in cricket, performing at every level before being chosen first for the England Under-19 side. His performances at the junior level won him a place in Durham in domestic first-class circuit. Within a year of making his debut at the first-class level, he got a call from the England selectors in August 2011, when he was included in the side for One Day International against Ireland at Dublin. He did not set the River Liffey on fire with his performance on debut as he was dismissed for just one run and was not asked to bowl.

The selectors continued to place their trust on his humongous talent and selected him for the tour to Australia for the 2013-14 Ashes series. He made his debut in Test cricket in the second match of the series at Adelaide where he picked up 2 wickets in the first innings but failed with the bat. In the next Test at Perth, Stokes showed his mettle by scoring a century on what was rated as the fastest pitch in the world. His knock of 120 in the last innings of the match, which England lost by 150 runs, stood as one of the few bright spots during a disastrous Ashes campaign that England lost 0-5. Towards the end of the series, he also came into his own as a bowler, getting his first five-wicket haul in Test matches.

However, this bright beginning was marred by two dreadful developments, which applied brakes to the fast progress that Stokes was making in the international arena. The first was an unfortunate final over that he bowled in the finals of the International Cricket Council (ICC) T20 World Cup played at Kolkata in 2016. After posting a total of 155 runs in their innings, England appeared to have the match in their bag when they pushed West Indies on to the back foot with some tight bowling. The last over of the match started with West Indies needing 19 runs to win the game. England captain Eoin Morgan entrusted the ball to Stokes only to find Carlos Brathwaite pummeling him for 4 consecutive sixers to finish the match with two balls to spare. To be fair to Stokes, only the first delivery was a bad ball but Brathwaite was in such marauding form that he could club the next three balls over the ropes to finish the game in style.

Even as Stokes was recovering from the trauma of this incident came the next misstep, this time outside the field. Stokes had a reputation of not being amenable to discipline, which had led to his facing action on a couple of occasions during his early days. But the brawl outside a night club at Bristol in September 2017 shocked even his most ardent fans as his punches landed two persons in hospital with broken bones. Stokes had to stand trial for his actions and was dropped from England squad, besides losing his position as vice captain. Though he was discharged by the Court, which accepted his plea that he was trying to defend a gay couple from attack, this incident dogged Stokes for a very long time.

Stokes went back to training with renewed vigour and returned to the England squad in 2018. From this time onwards, his career graph went on an upwards spike as he focused on doing full justice to the incredible talent that he was blessed with. He became the darling of his country when he starred in England’s title triumph in the ICC World Cup of 2019. He started the championship with a brilliant all-round performance against South Africa that won him the Man of the Match award. In the finals, it was his unbeaten 84 that helped England to win the match on technical grounds after even the super overs failed to break the tie with New Zealand. He held his nerve in the last regular over when he hit one sixer and was gifted another six runs by an overthrow to bring the score at par with that of the Kiwis. He then proceeded to bat through the super over also. It was a super human performance in a high-octane situation and is still regarded as one of the greatest displays of batting in a World Cup final.

During the Ashes series that followed, Stokes was in top form with the bat. After Australia won the first Test and the second one ended in a draw, England were staring at another defeat at Headingly, when they were set a final innings target of 362 runs. The fact that the hosts were shot out for 67 in the first knock made this target look even more daunting. When the ninth England wicket fell with the total at 286, Aussies started celebrating, believing that they had the game in the bag. But Stokes had other ideas. He went hammer and tongs against the Aussie attack that wilted under pressure. He and last man Jack Leach took England to the target, scoring 76 runs off a mere 62 balls, with the latter contributing just a single, while surviving 17 deliveries. This knock by Stokes is rated as among the best in the history of Ashes.

But the best part of the career of Stokes was yet to come. Appointed as the captain of the national side after Joe Root stepped down, he teamed up with the newly-appointed coach McCullum to bring about an amazing change in the fortunes of the side by playing a brand of positive and entertaining cricket, that came to be known popularly as “bazball”. Though the style of approaching the game in a fearless manner and playing attacking cricket irrespective of the situation had its share of detractors and was not a sure-fire recipe for success in all conditions, Stokes- McCullum stuck to this formula with good results. In the 44 Tests that he led England, Stokes ended up on the winning side in 24, while losing 17. His winning percentage of 54.54 places him at the third position, behind the legendary WG Grace and Mike Brearley, as the most successful captains, who led England in more than 10 Tests.

One cannot complete an analysis of the career of Stokes without comparing his achievements with those of Botham and Andrew Flintoff, two all-rounders of similar yoke, who were key performers for England during their heydays. Botham was a legendary match winner, who could turn around the fortunes of his side with both the ball and the bat. He is easily the best bowler among the three, as his haul of 383 wickets in 102 Tests with 27 five-wicket hauls in an innings and four pickings of 10 wickets in a match shows. Stokes is the better one among the trio with the willow as can be seen from his tally of 7,273 runs in 122 Tests. In comparison, Botham scored 5,200 runs from 102 Tests while Flintoff made 3,845 from 79. To be fair to Flintoff, it must be pointed out that he played for England during a period when the fortunes of the side were at a low ebb and he was invariably the only source of inspiration for the beleaguered team. Hence he commands a stature equal to that of the other two, despite lesser returns in terms of runs scored and wickets taken.

But Stokes scores decisively over Botham and Flintoff in the area of captaincy. Both Botham and Flintoff were disasters as captains, with the former even losing his form completely when he was in charge. Stokes, in contrast, enjoyed his tenure at the helm to such an extent that he could elevate his performance when in the hot seat. This is reflected in the 84 wickets he took while leading the side, breaking the record of 75 set by Bob Willis.

Interestingly, a common strand that runs through the careers of Botham, Flintoff and Stokes is the fact that all of them faced disciplinary action at some point or the other in their career. Botham was dropped from the side and even placed under suspension for smoking Marijuana and Cannabis, while Flintoff faced action for a late night drinking session while on a tour to the West Indies. In addition to the acts of misdemeanors detailed earlier, Stokes faced criticism for violating curfew rules and drinking late into the night at a pub during the recently concluded series against New Zealand. It is rumoured that this was one of the factors that forced him to hang up his boots at this juncture.

Well played Benjamin Andrew Stokes! Fans the world over will miss his larger than life presence when England takes the field in the next Test under a new skipper.