How miracle man Ben Stokes ‘changed the game’ and reached 100 England Test caps
As Stokes arrives at another milestone, Cameron Ponsonby looks through the personal trials and professional tribulations of England’s unique captain
As the England team woke on the morning of 1 December 2022, there was an option not to play cricket. Day one of England’s first Test tour to Pakistan since 2005 was in the balance, as a virus had wiped out the visitors’ squad and backroom staff to the point where it would’ve been a physical impossibility to field a team without picking members of the Barmy Army.
Ben Stokes himself had been one of the worst affected. With the captain unable to do his traditional pre-match media routines, Joe Root stood in and questioned how bad it would really be to wait one more day for a series that Pakistan had waited 17 years for.
The morning arrived. And an England squad full of bleary eyes and wobbly stomachs turned to their phones to see a message from their skipper: “Let’s go and get these guys.”
Five days later and England secured one of the finest Test victories in history, as Stokes put together a tactical masterclass born from brains, brawn and imodium. I see this water and I turn it into wine.
To call it the first Stokesian miracle would be a lie. That would be his fourth innings century against Australia in just his second Test match. Or his 92 and 101 against New Zealand in his 10th. Others may choose the 258 off 198 he scored in Cape Town during his 21st. Whilst the majority would opt for Test No 55 and a little-known innings at Headingley – a knock so powerful it gave a blind man, Jack Leach, sight.
Until he took over as captain, Stokes would enact miracles of his own and bless them unto others. Now, he skips out the middleman and creates them for all to enjoy at once. In the 20 Tests since he has taken over, England have chased 378 against India, whitewashed New Zealand at home and Pakistan away, lost by one run in Wellington having enforced the follow-on, drawn a generational Ashes series two-all from two-nil down, and currently have as good a chance as anyone to turn over India on their own patch for the first time in more than a decade. And it’s all been done at a tempo and in a style that the game has never seen before.
“What he’s done since he’s been captain has been amazing,” Ollie Pope said, two days out from England’s third Test against India. “He’s changed the game in a lot of respects.”
The Stokes way as skipper has existed for almost exactly a fifth of his Test career, with the Test in Rajkot the 22nd time he will walk out as captain, and the 100th time he will walk out as a Test player. In his own words, the milestone is one of “longevity”, if little more. It is an accolade that can be looked back on with pride in the future as opposed to now. For Stokes the cricketer, there was never much doubt that 100 Tests would arrive, but for Stokes the person, the guarantee was less so.
In 2011, he was arrested for obstructing police on a pre-Christmas night out. In 2013, he was sent home from an England Lions tour for drinking. In 2016 he was caught speeding four times and in 2017 he was arrested again, this time on suspicion of actual bodily harm following a fight outside a Bristol nightclub. Stokes was later cleared of affray. In 2021 he took a six-month break from the sport for his mental wellbeing, following the death of his father two years earlier.
It used to be that Stokes’s trials were personal and his tribulations professional. Now, both fall in the camp of the latter.
“I think since becoming captain,” Stokes said, speaking to the UK media in Rajkot. “One of the main things I enjoy is that every day I wake up and have a great opportunity to progress people’s careers. I’d like to think I’m perceived as a pretty selfless person when it comes to cricket, taking away any personal or individual gains out of what I do.”
An intensely loyal character, Stokes is known for sparking the same depth of emotion from others that he pours into them. For all the talk of run rates and attacking fields, the Bazball era has been defined by a mantra of making an adult profession the childhood dream it was always supposed to be.
“Everyone who’s come into the group since I’ve taken over, even those who’ve played for many years, just seeing them always enjoying their time on the field is one of the great things that I love that we’ve been able to do,” Stokes said.
“Not losing sight of that is something that me and Baz are very keen on,” he added, referencing his partnership with coach Brendon McCullum. “That each, to a man, would be able to sit here and say – regardless of how a day goes or how a game goes – that they enjoy every moment out on the field.”
It would be a lie to say that was the case throughout England’s Test win in Rawalpindi. Players joked that if they had lost the toss and been forced to field, the mutiny that would have followed would have been the envy of the world – had each player not been so busy running back and forth to the loo.
But the guiding principle remained that where Stokes led, others followed.
“Enjoy the flatness,” was the mantra of the tour, as Stokes managed to bring joy from a place of discomfort in a way that countless leaders have failed to do before.
For 78 Tests, Stokes did that as a player, and for 22 and counting he has done so as a leader. It is arguably his greatest miracle of all.
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