Ben Stokes celebrates a half-century at Old Trafford against India

Ben Stokes followed-up his five-wicket-haul on Day Two at Old Trafford with a half-century battling through cramp on Day Three. As the Ashes approach and the rest of the puzzle starts to fall into place, Stokes himself might be the most important piece, writes Ben Gardner.

Donald Trump was less than a year into his presidency. Nintendo had just released a new Switch console. Liam Dawson had played Test cricket that summer. Much has changed and much has stayed the same when Ben Stokes last took a five-wicket haul for England, not least for Stokes himself. He has won two World Cups and played one of Test cricket’s greatest innings. He has been arrested, survived a court case, and suffered numerous injuries, to finger, hamstring and knee. He has had his relationship with cricket itself tested, spending time away from the game, and spinning the comebacks into a Sam Mendes-directed documentary. He has been named captain of his country and changed the way the game is played. And now, on the verge of his first truly landmark series win as captain, heading into the tour that will define his legacy, he holds the ball aloft again.

All series he has been good, delivering in bursts and breakthroughs. Yashasvi Jaiswal had his off-bail pickpocketed by a beauty on day one at Headingley, Stokes defying an old Dukes ball to dismiss a set, world-class player. Pinning KL Rahul lbw on day five at Lord’s removed India’s last specialist batter, and their most technically correct. Ten of his 15 wickets have been dismissing set top eight batters on 30 or more at the time. It’s not a coincidence that his one poor Test, at Edgbaston, was the one England lost, rudderless on the second day with Harry Brook forced to plod through five ineffective overs.

Stokes is often characterised as a moments bowler, ripping out wickets by guts, heart, sheer force of will. But it’s also down to a variety of skills, malleable to the conditions and the batters he’s faced with, and the cricketing intelligence to identify what approach is needed for any given situation. He is England’s most complete bowler, and it’s part of what makes him such an able captain in the field, and has enabled England to pick a slew of bowlers without the presumed requisite experience for Test cricket. Stokes can make them feel like the best version of themselves, tell them how they need to bowl, and set a field accordingly. And he can fill any gaps in a bowling attack as required. Here, he was able to cover for Brydon Carse being off it, to dismiss three of India’s right handers as Archer took care of the southpaws. Two were bounced out, the captain Shubman Gill deceived into leaving, Shardul Thakur tempted into the booming drive, and the best of all saved for he who least warranted it, a searing, rising pearler kissing Anshul Kamboj’s edge.

With five in the first innings, he became the series leading wicket taker. He has bowled his most overs in a Test series and taken his most wickets in a Test summer. The fears over his workload and fitness have slowly receded. At Lord’s, a groin niggle hampered him while batting on the first day. By the last the ball could not be prised from his hand, and it was he who bounced out Jasprit Bumrah before Mohammad Siraj’s slow backspinning death. The hope is that every over bowled is an over further away from injury, not closer. A bout of cramp forced Stokes to retire hurt at Old Trafford, providing a reminder of the need for caution even now. It also served to underline that Stokes’ bowling is now more important to England than his batting.

If Stokes bowling form can largely be traced through his fitness, his batting is more complicated. So rarely through his career has he enjoyed an uninterrupted streak when external circumstances and his own body have allowed him to be the best version of himself. He was close in that 2017 summer, but then came Bristol and the hairshirt years, Stokes reining himself in in seeming penance to the teammates he felt he had let down. Between 2019 and 2020 was his peak, reaching a crest of No.3 in the world rankings. Then came a scuppering tour of the subcontinent, a finger injury and a break from the game, Stokes not quite out of the funk until after the Ashes. His early captaincy efforts saw him go hardest himself, a permission slip for the others to swing. Then more injury issues, more struggles against spin, and now here we are, for the first time in a long time without a readymade reason for Stokes to be out of form, and perhaps also with signs he is rediscovering himself. At Old Trafford he made his first half-century of the series, but also his fifth score above 30. He has found ways to contribute, committed not to hit himself out of trouble, and now, against a flagging India seam attack but a testing pair of spinners, looks closer to being a Test-calibre top-six batter.

With England leading by 186, seven wickets down at stumps, the Test is almost sealed, and with it the series. Thoughts can just start to drift to the winter’s challenge. Stokes’ story in Australia is unfinished: the one positive from 2013/14, standing up to Mitchell Johnson as the rest fell inside the WACA’s cracks, missing 2017/18 and then struggling to come back to himself in 2021/22. He has one last go in him, with his deputy in peerless form, a couple of unscarred tyros and a seam attack returning to full complement. Stokes himself, a crucial piece of the puzzle, might also be slotting into place.

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