Ben Stokes is in the midst of a batting decline, and while England’s power-packed batting order has papered over his struggles, they need him back at his legendary best to accomplish their ultimate goal.
One brings two struck twice for England at Edgbaston; first when Ollie Pope was dismissed the ball after Ben Duckett fell, and then when Stokes was sent back for a first-baller in the second over of day three. The delivery Mohammed Siraj sent down to him was a snorter, banged in and cutting across the England captain, just taking the shoulder of his bat for Rishabh Pant to do the rest. Nevertheless, losing two in two for the second time in as many sessions left his side in a tricky position, a passage of play had that may still prove decisive even given Jamie Smith and Harry Brook’s triple-century stand.
Good ball or not, it was Stokes 13th single-figure dismissal out of 27 innings since January last year. There have still been important innings scattered through those failures. He scored 70 amidst a first innings collapse in Hyderabad which ultimately proved crucial in such a narrow win. There was the 57 not out off 28 he scored in Nottingham last year when he promoted himself to open, nailing the assignment to get the game done inside three days. You could also point to the 49 not out he scored in Wellington to set up a declaration for England to win the series.
Nevertheless, his overall numbers show the broader picture. It’s now over two years since Stokes scored a Test century. Since the start of last year he averages 26.56 with the bat and he has made just five half-centuries, fewer than even Smith, who has played four fewer Tests and bats below Stokes in the order. Of particular note is how bad Stokes has been throughout his Test career in Asia, with England having played in both India and Pakistan in the last year and a half. He averaged 18.00 across both of those series, passing fifty just once and was dismissed before reaching 10 in more than half of his innings’.
27 innings, 664 runs and more than two years for a century.
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) July 4, 2025
A lean patch with the bat in recent times for England's Test captain.#BenStokes #ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/wFq3OeVsnp
Having risen as high as No.3 in the ICC Test rankings during the 2020 summer, hitting four hundreds in the 12 months between consecutive home summers, Stokes kept his numbers stable in the early days of his captaincy, even as he went harder than any of his teammates to lead his philosophy. Only Root and Brook scored more runs at a higher average than Stokes did in the first phase of his captaincy – from its start to the end of the 2023 Ashes – and his average in that timeframe was a shade under 40 (39.11). Put simply, Stokes was able to marry up his natural role in the middle order to turn the pressure back on oppositions with decent consistency.
There’s no obvious reason for why that success hasn’t proved sustainable, so perhaps it’s a combination of factors. The obvious starting point are the injuries he’s both played through and had to take time out of the side to recover from. At times, Stokes has had to play within himself in order to manage his body, not fully trusting it’ll support him. Being captain is also often pointed to when a leader dips in form, although for Stokes this feels like a moot point. As such a natural leader, it’s hard to see the weight of captaincy burdening him. Equally, the criticism previously levied at Stokes – embodying his own approach of living and dying by the sword, attempting to go from ball one to allow the rest to do the same – doesn’t quite ring true anymore either. At Trent Bridge earlier this summer, Stokes scratched around for almost half an hour before he was bounced out by Blessing Muzarabani, and he’s been undone by Mohammed Siraj twice in three innings now against India.
Ultimately, England have largely managed to find a way while Stokes has tried to work through his struggles. Ben Duckett has excelled up top, while the powerhouse middle order of Root and Brook has held firm. Now, Smith is also demanding a place above Stokes in the batting order, his promotion feeling more inevitable with each innings.
However, England and Stokes are now well into the crescendo of his leadership, building towards the deafening importance of the Ashes at the end of the year. While Australia was the backdrop of Stokes’s arrival 12 years ago, it has not been a happy hunting ground since, with just two fifties from his 15 innings there since his maiden ton. If England are to seal a memorable win down under, a win which would be a defining factor in Stokes’s legacy, they’ll need their talisman at his very best.
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