Ben Stokes has been an enigma when it comes to England cricket and Tests in general. Known to be a warrior who battles till the very end to get his side home-as we saw in that famous Headingley Test when he defied the odds and scored 135 against Australia to take England to a historic Ashes win-Stokes was an insurance policy for England lower down the order.
When Bazball came in, the captain could always step up and deliver a performance either with his fearless batting, captaincy, or both. But after a chastening experience at Edgbaston, where , questions are being raised about the all-rounder and his dwindling numbers.
This comes just days after he was hailed as England’s greatest-ever captain by Steve Harmison. The defeat to India was amplified by the fact that the visitors beat Bazball and England at their own game, and the hosts simply couldn’t defend themselves, swallow their pride, and play out a draw.
During that loss on Day 5, what probably encapsulated England’s struggles was seeing Stokes left in awe of the delivery from Washington Sundar-as if the pitch had some demons on it. Unfortunately for the England skipper, people trolled him for this.
Stokes’ comments also came across as an excuse, as he said the pitch was more like the subcontinent.
“To be honest, it’s probably ended up being more of a subcontinent pitch as it’s got deeper and deeper into the game. You know, there certainly a little bit in it to start off with, and I think we exposed that very, very well early on,” said Stokes.
However, that wasn’t the case, as India scored more than 1,000 runs on a track where Ravindra Jadeja and Sundar combined to pick up just two wickets across both innings. It was a flat deck where England batters were supposed to score quickly. That was the demand Stokes put forward before the 2023 Ashes, and now it has come back to bite him.
But that’s enough of what he said outside the field and after the loss. Let’s focus on what he has been doing with the bat in recent times.
The numbers don’t lie
So, where do we start with the mighty Ben Stokes? For a team that depends on its batters to get runs in bulk, Stokes seems to be the issue at the moment. Day one of the second Test marked two years since Stokes scored a Test hundred.
During this time, Stokes has scored 886 runs at 30.55 with seven half-centuries. The current series paints an even grimmer picture. The all-rounder has put up scores of 20, 33, 0, and 33 at a strike rate of 48.58. Not Bazball-ish enough.
What makes things worse for Stokes? Well, the impeccable form of his Indian counterpart, Shubman Gill, who has scored 585 runs in four innings with three hundreds to his name.
Apart from this, Stokes’ struggles against spin are also well documented.
He has been dismissed 16 times out of his last 25 dismissals in Test cricket at an average of 18.43.
Stubbornness or arrogance?
Probably the biggest issue with Stokes and his side is their reluctance to play for a draw. Sometimes, there is no shame in accepting that you were outplayed and just living to fight another day, rather than becoming a kamikaze fighter plane and going up in flames.
This is a man who once showed resilience when he battled the mighty Aussies for a win. But there are cases where you need to just swallow your pride and fight another day. That is what was needed on the final day of the match, and England could have taken a 1-0 lead with a draw heading to Lord’s.
This stubborn nature of not mending your ways according to the situation has left England in the wrong spot-a team that has never truly been in contention. Coming to his captaincy, Mohammad Kaif said he couldn’t quite understand the hype around Stokes as a leader due to some of the critical errors he made at Edgbaston.
“I have never understood the hype around Ben Stokes, the captain. On a flat track with sun shining he decides to bowl, today with some life in pitch edges flying but no extra slip. Batsmen took England to win in first Test but Stokes didn’t score many. Please inform if I have missed any of his hidden leadership master stroke,” tweeted Kaif.
The biggest Test awaits
The match at Lord’s-no pun intended-could be the . Michael Atherton suggested this in his column for The Times, as he felt the England skipper would now need to find a way to rally his deflated side and get them back to winning ways.
“In the three years that Ben Stokes has captained England, it is hard to think that he has faced a sterner challenge than over the next two days, as he contemplates how to lift his players for the third Test at Lord’s. It will be a massive test of his leadership, and his own mental and physical resilience,” said Atherton.
“It is not hard to imagine, then, how he must be feeling now. There was a gap of seven days between the first and second Tests. The three days that Stokes used to shut himself off from the world after Leeds for his own benefit are essentially the days he must use now to rally his players.”
For this to happen, Stokes has to now step up. His words have always been those of a brave leader, but now his actions need to speak louder than words. Acting as if he got out to the ball of the century won’t fly, and the all-rounder needs to show his batting prowess and be sharp with his calls on the field.
Otherwise, this young Indian team that was written off by the English media could leave Bazball-and Stokes-with a lot to answer.