Ben Stokes feature, players speak over greatest all-rounder, best moments, video

‘IT THREW HIM’: Truth about Poms’ ‘cheat’ tactic— Great Ashes moment 25-16

FEATURE: Aus cricket’s great enigma… and ‘who am I?’ moment that had to happen

Stokes defends relaxed Ashes prep | 01:58

‘He’s a bit like Freddie was for us’

Stokes brings the “fear factor” according to Mark Waugh. Nathan Lyon rates the 34-year-old alongside Jacques Kallis as the greatest all-rounder cricket has seen.

He has the respect of the Aussies, Travis Head said, and former England captain Michael Vaughan has no doubt his nation’s hopes this summer rest squarely on the skipper.

The New Zealand-born six footer, who has Maori blood running through his veins and is the son of rugby league icon Gerard Stokes, who played with and coached Canterbury, is a real “hard man”, ex-English keeper Geraint Jones said.

From his first tour of Australia back in 2013, when he scored a century at the WACA and stood defiant against an Australian attack featuring the rampaging Mitchell Johnson, Stokes has stood up to the Aussies.

At the end of that summer, he was described in The Guardian as “the only welcome positive for the future”. A dozen years on and he is the front man of a far stronger English team.

Challenging others has always been his way. And that includes defying medical advice.

A profile of Stokes in The Athletic on the weekend detailed his childhood in New Zealand where, so skilled was he at sport, he was invited to train with the nation’s under-16 AFL academy when aged 12 given his talent kicking an oval ball with both feet.

An anecdote describing where, after breaking his arm, he was at risk of missing a key fixture for his school Plimmerton against a far bigger school, demonstrates the courage that has typified his career.

In an interview with the BBC in 2023, his teacher Mike Smellie said Stokes’s mother, who was a cricketer, ruled him out of the game given his arm was due to be in a cast for three more weeks. But his dad had other thoughts.

“The next day Ben walked up the school driveway, pulling his cricket bag, with no cast on his arm,” Smellie said.

“I said, ‘What’s going on? He said, ‘Dad got the scissors and cut it off this morning’.”

His school lost the match, but not before Stokes gave them a chance with a century. Sound familiar?

Vaughn: “Ben Stokes holds the keys!” | 04:55

With a brittle knee just one ache among many in an ageing body heading into the Ashes, his ability to produce with bat and ball, while rallying his men as skipper shapes as the biggest challenge of his career.

Ex-Aussie opener David Warner, who played alongside Stokes at Durham in the infancy of the champion’s County career, is among those stunned at his ability to keep charging in after 115 Tests and has no doubt in his ability to test the hosts.

“He’s had a lot of injuries and with him being an all-rounder and someone who, my gosh, puts in like he does when he bats and when he bowls, it is incredible,” Warner said.

“I know he’s had knee injuries, hamstring injuries and everything, but to still be on the park today, bowling and batting the way he does … it’s admirable.”

Jones, who similarly to Stokes spent his youth in Australasia before winning a spot in the English side in the early 2000s, likened the blood, sweat and tears approach of the current skipper to that of Andrew Flintoff from his era.

“Stokes is a hard man, isn’t he? He’s a bit like Freddie was for us. He gives absolutely everything,” Jones, who is the Head of Cricket at St Lawrence College in Kent, said.

“Freddie for us would just give it everything and he’d come in and he’d just collapse into his chair and that’s the way I perceive that Ben Stokes does it.

Aussies give their opinion on Bazball | 07:55

“He might have half a knee, you know, or whatever it is, but he’s still going to try and run in and do everything he can for his team and inspire that way. That’s the way I think a lot of people see him. He’s pure inspiration over here.”

In the tremendous series against India during the Australian winter, Stokes was superb.

His most recent Test amply demonstrates his match-winning capabilities, with the superstar making 141 in the first innings while also taking six wickets. It was ‘pure inspiration’ at its highest level.

Aussie all-rounder Cameron Green, who is back bowling this week ahead of the Ashes after missing last summer with stress fractures, said Stokes’s work ethic is clearly exceptional.

“I think I probably just respect his resilience as well because I think I know how tough it is to be an all rounder, especially when you are playing all three formats, to be able to still find the motivation to come out every day and try as hard as you can,” he said.

But there was a significant problem. He ran himself into the ground and was unable to play the last Test due to a shoulder injury, a match in which India was able to withstand a challenge to square the series.

Vaughan told Fox Cricket’s podcast The Follow On this week that for England to win downunder for the first time in 15 years, Stokes needed to look after himself properly.

“I’m not saying he’s everything to this England team, but I wouldn’t want to try and take Australia on in their own backyard without a Ben Stokes who can play all the facets in the game,” Vaughan said.

“So England have to manage him. But I guess it’s not England who has to manage him. He has to manage himself. He’s got to really look after that body. We’ve seen him bowl 10 over spells, 12 over spells in the series in New Zealand, in the summer against India, and he couldn’t finish the series.

“So it’s very, very important that he manages that body, because he can’t be bowling that length of spells in the heat of Australia. He’s got to manage himself, because he’s the only person that can manage himself.”

SWIPING AWAY THE SLEDGES

Stokes was flushing them on Wednesday at Lilac Hill, the lovely suburban ground in Perth where the English squad has been fine tuning their preparations.

After spending a couple of months rehabilitating the shoulder injury from the English summer, he spent a little time in New Zealand before jetting into Perth to the warmest of headlines.

Baz Bawl. Sitting Duck. No Balls. Local paper The West Australian has been punchy.

“England’s Cocky Captain Complainer, still smarting from ‘crease-gate’, lands in Perth early thinking dopey ‘BazBall’ can take the Ashes,” read the front page caption on November 5 greeting his arrival.

Ex-English bowler Steve Finn suspects the coverage will be like a red rag to a bull for Stokes, not that he necessarily needs additional motivation to produce his best against the Aussies.

Ben Duckett, meanwhile, told the Willow Talk podcast that Stokes had found his mojo in enemy territory.

“He’s been running, bowling two spells, batting for two hours. The way he trains these days is something I’ve never seen before. He’s an absolute beast,” Duckett said.

The Aussies learnt not to antagonise Virat Kohli. And it pays to respect Ben Stokes as well, Aussie star Travis Head said.

“You look at all their moments, in big moments in games, and he seems to be the one that has got runs or won a moment,” he said.

“He’s won a few and he’s lost a few, but … he’s probably their clutchest player. And you look at players who you want to play with (and) you want match winners. You want guys to go out there (who) can flip a game on its head or win your game out of nowhere, and he’s probably been that guy. So there’s a lot of respect there for that.”

Stokes quipped that the only issue he had with the headline barrage was that it too swiftly moved on to Joe Root when highlighting the fact the champion No.4 is yet to score a century in Australia.

But the skipper did have a crack at “has beens” who have questioned whether England’s preparation has been diligent enough for the challenge that lies ahead over the next seven weeks.

Those “has beens” were pretty handy players, by the way. Vaughan. Ian Botham. Simon Katich. And the list goes on. But Stokes did what he does best by going on the attack and defending his team. His “beast mode” has been activated.

Archer & Stokes claim famous win at Lord | 01:47

THE BEST ALL-ROUNDER EVER?

Before Stokes assumed the England captaincy in 2022, he did more than his part as a champion all-rounder who Kerry O’Keeffe suspects is now his nation’s best ever in the role.

“I like a lot about Ben Stokes,” the Fox Cricket expert analyst said.

“I look at the three all-rounders (in) Stokes, Flintoff and Botham (and) he’s by far the best batsman of that three. Botham at his peak was the best bowler but Stokes will end up being the best all-rounder England’s ever possessed.

“If he was to win this Ashes series and do well himself, a Knighthood awaits. So there’s a lot resting on this.”

Aussie great Mark Waugh says that while Stokes does not have a remarkable batting average – he has made 7032 runs at an average of 35.7 – he makes them when they count the most.

“Ben Stokes is the most important player in this Ashes series. He’s an aggressive captain, but with his stats, with his batting and bowling, he’s an elite all-rounder,” Waugh said.

“He can win the game with the bat or the ball, and when you do that, you know you’re such an important player to the team for their balance.

“And I think just his leadership, you know, they will follow him on the field. So if he’s injured at some stage, I think it really hurts England’s chances. But if he’s fit and gets through five Tests with his bowling and his batting, (they are a chance).

“His batting numbers aren’t great … but he gets the big runs when they need him to win a game. He’ll bat and make 100, so the Australians definitely fear him. He’s a huge player in this series.”

Champion off-spinner Nathan Lyon has played with and against legends and is clear in his appraisal of Stokes.

“(It is) hard for me to talk about his captaincy, because I feel like you need to play under people if you want a real opinion on their captaincy style,” Lyon said in an interview in Brisbane in September.

“But playing against Ben, I think Ben’s an incredible competitor. And in my opinion, of the people I’ve seen playing cricket, I think it’s a conversation between Jacques Kallis and Ben Stokes as to the greatest all-rounders to have played the game.

“That’s what brings in the conversation and that’s why I’m not going to sit here and pick one or two. I think both Jacques Kallis and Ben Stokes are incredible cricketers, and so that’s why, over a beer, I think that conversation would be quite interesting.”

How much longer does Stokes have left? | 03:11

With the ball Stokes has taken 230 Test wickets at an average of 31.64 and can be especially dangerous, with Vaughan pointing to his deeds against India during the recent Australian winter as an illustration.

“Against India in those few Test matches he was able to bowl, he was England’s best seamer by a country mile. If he can get fit to bowl in five Test matches, he will give Australia a real run for his money,” he said.

“He just has this amazing ability to crack open a game, whether it’s with a bat in hand or whether it is with the ball. He is as calm a batsman as I’ve ever seen. Ben Stokes generally delivers with the bat, and in recent times against India, with the ball.

“He was the person, the player, they turned to to try and crack open the game and he did it on a regular basis. It’s very important that he stays fit.”

Aussie paceman Josh Hazlewood, who will travel to Perth after a hamstring scare in a Sheffield Shield game against Victoria, said the importance of an all-rounder cannot be underplayed given the rigours of an Ashes series.

“I think any great team – we talk about balance again – you just need that all-rounder. You need that guy, especially from a bowling point of view, to bowl … eight to ten overs a day,” he said.

“We’ve obviously got a couple at the moment with Green and ‘Sluggy’ Webster. (That) just creates that balance within the team. If you take them out, it puts a lot of pressure on the bowling group, probably not so much on the batting, because you can probably pick another batter there to cover that spot.

“It just makes a team balanced, having that all-rounder, and Stokes has obviously done that for England for a long time.”

‘They want to bleed blood for England under Ben’

Stokes is the ultimate triple threat given his role as the skipper and there is an all-round element to his leadership in the position as well.

Matthew Hoggard, who featured in England’s famous 2005 series win and is now working on the motivational speaking circuit, has no doubt his teammates walk taller when they are striding out to the middle alongside Stokes.

“It’s the way that he conducts himself and the way he gets the best out of his players, because I think the players respond so much better on the pitch and they want to play for Ben,” Hoggard, who also runs a Hog Roast business in the English Midlands, said.

“They want to bleed blood for England under Ben, to make sure that we come out with the right with the right result in the end. So, apart from his batting his ball and his field and his captaincy, I think the team are a lot better with Ben in there. So no pressure Ben.”

Former Indian coach Ravi Shastri said this was evident when he was broadcasting the series during July and August in England that had its share of flashpoints and controversy.

“He’s a leader of men and he leads from the front. He is a terrific cricketer,” he said.

“His great strength is his ability to raise the bar when the chips are down. When needed, that’s the time he will take the bat or the ball and do the job. And England would need a fully fit Stokes right through the series if they are to compete.

“They want to play for him. He’s got the trust of the players. He’s got the trust of the management. They’re all on similar wavelengths.”

Stokes fuming as India refuse handshake! | 01:13

David Warner saw a fearlessness in their time together at Durham that is now apparent in his captaincy of England.

“As a youngster he was the same (with) an aggressive style of play,” Warner said.

“He empowers that and sort of gets his group of men playing that way. He’s brave, very brave, in his decision making. He’s not scared of losing. That’s quite evident.

“And he looks like a guy that you want to play for. You know, he’s always got your back. You see that when you’re out there and when you’re watching him.

“I think he does that very well and obviously the guys like him, which is obviously a good thing. I think, all in all as a cricketer and as a leader, he’s grown and everyone’s grown more attracted to him and likes him.”

There is also a tactical astuteness that Vaughan suspects is under-appreciated given the bluster surrounding BazBall, as demonstrated with England adopting a more measured approach to the thrill-a-minute theory against India.

“He’s just a brilliant leader. He’s an outstanding captain. He’s got that self belief. We had it in the ‘80s with Ian Botham and now we’ve got it with Ben Stokes,” Vaughan said.

“Freddie (Flintoff) captained in 06/07 and it wasn’t easy against that legendary Australian side. But Ben has been captain of the Test team now for a while and he’s a remarkable leader, a really good tactician. We don’t really mention how clever he is with his tactics, but he’s a really good tactician.”

This aspect of Stokes’s vast skillset is another thing that Shastri noted during the thrilling series between India and England.

“England have been smart of late. They’ve got the right balance. It’s not just one way traffic,” Shastri said.

“There’s more game awareness taken into account regarding the state of the game, the kind of conditions that exist, and then accordingly, they adjust, but they will be positive. There’s no question about that. They will come out backing themselves to be positive.”

But Hoggard, when speaking for his fast bowling brethren, would suggest one thing to Stokes. If you win the toss, bat!

The countdown is on to the opening Test next Friday, with England playing its sole preparatory match against an English Lions side over an extended weekend. In a bright start to the summer, Stokes managed to strike in his first over.

Whether or not the preparation is enough will be assessed after the Perth Test, but there is no surprise about how Stokes is planning to approach this weekend given his history.

“The next three days is balls to the wall for everyone. (There is) no easing into it,” he said.

Emotional Stokes breaks century drought | 00:59