Inside the mind of Ben Stokes – and a defining year for the England captain’s cricketing legacy

After a series of injuries, Ben Stokes is back to his all-round best at Headingley, writes Cameron Ponsonby. But could the end of his captaincy be in sight?

England’s former strength and conditioning coach, Phil Scott, puts it best.

“I know you need to hurt yourself,” Scott said of Ben Stokes.

“How hard he trains,” Scott continues. “It’s a bit scary for people to watch. Because it’s like: ‘OK, is he going to hurt himself?’ Not many people can push themselves to the extreme. But some people can take themselves to dark places.”

Stokes has just returned from his latest dark place. A second major hamstring injury, which itself came off the back of a long-running serious knee issue, means that for years we’ve been deprived of him at his best. Or at least at his fittest.

Scott’s words came during filming for the Ben Stokes documentary on Amazon Prime, Ben Stokes: Phoenix from the Ashes. Released in 2022, it also includes this from Joe Root.

“When it gets hard, you don’t need to turn to him. He comes to you,” Root said. “And I think that’s probably the hardest thing for him to manage as well.”

Spoken in 2022, but as relevant in 2025 as ever. Here at Headingley, in just his second match since his six-month lay off, on day one of a legacy-defining 10 Test matches against India, then Australia, he got the ball in his hand and didn’t let go.

“I ain’t holding back,” was Stokes’ own reply in December when asked if, after yet another injury, he’d consider lightening his bowling loads to protect his body. And he was true to his word.

A six-over spell was followed by a seven. Across a day where only three wickets fell as bat dominated ball, Stokes accounted for two of them. At the end of the innings, he had taken four wickets and bowled 20 overs. He was England’s best bowler. So why should anyone else have a go?

Ben Stokes was England’s best bowler during India’s first innings at Headingley (Action Images via Reuters)

The return of Stokes’ bowling has sparked memories of him being back to his best with the ball in hand. A 12-month period that ran from 2019 to 2020. Arguably, the peak was his match-winning spell in front of a raucous crowd at Cape Town, where a triple strike late on day five single-handedly won England a match that had seemed destined for a draw. Three wickets in the space of three Stokes overs. A number of England players rank it as one of their favourite ever victories for a reason, including Stokes himself.

“It’s great to be able to go back and look at footage from where you felt like you were in a really, really good rhythm,” Stokes said ahead of this match against India. “I actually used Cape Town as a visual thing for me to look back at and go, ‘what was I doing there?’ Because that felt really good.”

“Ben lives in moments,” explains former England bowler and Durham teammate of Stokes, Steve Harmison, to The Independent. “This team is Ben. It represents Ben. And it’s why they’re so exciting to watch.”

Stokes’ best moments have been with the bat, who can forget Headingley 2019? (PA)

Harmison, now 46, has known Stokes since he was a kid at Durham’s academy. First hearing the rumours of an uber-talented 14-year-old who was coming through the ranks, before being on the pitch with him as he made his professional debut against Surrey as a 17-year-old.

“It was a whirlwind,” recalls Harmison. “He got Mark Ramprakash clean bowled with one of his first deliveries in first-team cricket.”

Stokes’ finest moments in an England shirt have largely come with the bat. Headingley 2019. The World Cup Final in 2019. The World Cup Final in 2022.

By contrast, his lowest moment – remember the name Carlos Brathwaite – came with the ball. The final over of the 2016 T20 World Cup – and defending 19 to win, he conceded four sixes in a row. But on his showing with ball in hand so far, there is another chapter to the Stokes legacy still to be written.

A healthy Stokes is a balanced England. Batting at six or seven and being able to bowl a full quota of overs allows England to field three further specialist seamers and a spinner. It is why England fans watch each Stokes delivery through gritted teeth. Please, Ben, don’t break yourself.

A fit and firing Stokes could be crucial to England’s chances of beating India and winning the Ashes in Australia (Getty)

Where fans see the importance of these two series as a reason for Stokes to bowl little and often, Stokes himself sees it as a need for himself to bowl more and always. And it’s a mindset Harmison believes we should trust.

“I saw him at Trent Bridge against Zimbabwe,” says Harmison. “And it’s the fittest I’ve seen him in a number of years. I’d like to think Ben has learned the hard way about the two hamstring injuries he’s got. As you get older, they become a recurrence and you get warning signs.

“So let’s not worry about the body packing up on him. Let’s just think we’ve got the all-rounder back from five years ago. And we need that all-rounder if we want to beat India and Australia. So if he wants to bowl 20 overs, we have to trust him. Because he knows about the warning signs.”

Stokes’ captaincy reflects his determination to give maximum effort (Action Images via Reuters)

These two series won’t define Stokes the individual. His legend in English cricket is already made. But it will define this English team that sits in his image. And when others need him is when Stokes turns it on more than ever.

“I speak with so much pride whenever I speak about Ben,” Harmison continues. “I’ve seen the boy turn into a man, and the man go through a hell of a lot of bumps in the road. I am so proud of him as a person and as England captain.

“He was born a winner. He was brought up in an environment of a winner. His father was an unbelievable man and you can see where Ben gets it from.”

For a man who lives for the moment, none come bigger than leading your country away in the Ashes. It is the natural finale of the Bazball experiment, even if Brendon McCullum is contracted to 2027 and Stokes himself has said nothing to suggest he wishes to stop. But nevertheless, the feeling is there that if Stokes were to lift that urn above his head in Sydney in January, what worlds would be left to conquer?

The series against India and Australia will come to define the success of the ‘Bazball’ era (Getty)

“I don’t even think Ben knows,” Harmison says of what is next for arguably England’s greatest ever cricketer. “And that excites me.

“And equally, if England go to Australia and lose. That also shouldn’t be the end of Ben Stokes. I could see a moment of what Shane Warne said, that he probably would’ve finished in 2005 if Australia hadn’t lost and seen the England celebrations. That gave him the drive to extend his career and to build something to make sure that when they come back to us, we’re going to nail it.”

Across the board, the sentiment is that the 34-year-old Stokes is fitter and more responsible than ever. In order to best recover from his latest injury, he gave up alcohol and, at times, now concedes he understands the need for moderation across all walks of life. The time off has allowed him to rediscover his “old” bowling action. The one from Cape Town. The one where Stokes was at his best. But he is still 34.

In Greek mythology, Atlas was forced to put the world on his back for eternity. In England’s reality, Stokes has been tasked to do the same. If only for one year.