Change of heart that Stokes fear

Ben Stokes ordinary performances are good enough but it is the fear of the extraordinary which makes him such an asset to England.

Ben Stokes can change the course of a series with bat or ball Picture: Getty Images

The street-fighting all-rounder is the most cherished, the least sighted and the most dangerous player in the game. Make no mistake, Ben Stokes declaration of intent changes everything coming into the Ashes.

It is great for the contest, a little unnerving for those whose moods rise and fall with Australia’s success or lack of it.

Like Ian Botham before him, Stokes has the ability to change the course of a game through an intimidating mix of will and muscle power.

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Few can reduce an opposition to the states these two have on their day(s).

Stokes averages, like Botham’s, give fair reflection of the broad sweep of their careers, but none of the real impact. Here is a man who averages 38 in Ashes Tests, 36 with the ball. Similar to his numbers across the 58 Tests he has played against other nations. Botham tracked in similar areas.

It is in the outliers – like the third Test of the 2019 – that haunt with players like Stokes. A neighbour’s usually placid pet needs only bite you once to ensure you are never quite comfortable in its presence again.

Ben Stokes celebrates hitting the winning runs at Headingley in 2019 Picture: Getty Images

With a Stokes or a Botham it is as much about what they can do as what they do.

Australia bottled it in the face of Stokes aggression in Headingley. Was it anything other than panic that saw a simple return run out botched in such an abject manner? A referral wasted by clouded, anxious minds? Even the umpires seemed unwilling to halt the inevitable charge.

A monumental mistake was made when that LBW against Stokes was not given in the penultimate over given England had a referral up its sleeve and Australia did not. Similar good fortune occurred in the World Cup final when an umpire awarded four extra runs from what should have been a dead ball.

All minds were muddled – with the sole exception of Stokes’.

There is an irresistible momentum that can possess bowler or batsman in an innings, but an all rounder can build it with one and finish it with another as Stokes did that day in Headingley.

It’s as if the player can bend the world to their will. You see it in all champions and its magnificent to behold a human being so in control of their domain.

Most remember the indomitable batting in the fourth innings from Stokes in that game. And why not, he was imperious, nothing could touch him, it was if he’d made a pact at the crossroads the consequences of which have never really revealed themselves.

It was, however, his indefatigable bowling which kept England live at Leeds.

He played an abject shot in the first innings when England posted just 67 and the game was slipping away when he began his extraordinary spell during Australia’s second turn at the crease

Stokes essentially bowled 24.2 overs without rest. Joe Root had given him a break and re-introduced Jofra Archer after eight, but the quick cramped badly four balls into his first over and Stokes returned from the briefest of rests to resume his work.

In his 13th over, when Australia was 267 in front with six wickets in hand, Jonny Bairstow dropped an edge from Marnus Labuschagne.

Still he laboured on and in his following over, Matthew Wade gloved a chance which the keeper held on to.

The all-rounder had forced them back into the outskirts of the game, but it not even the most optimistic England gave them much hope – even when Tim Paine fell for a duck three balls later.

Stokes was still bowling unchanged when the last wicket fell and Australia’s lead stood at 358. His figures of 3-56 give no credit to the effort which seemed so vain at the time.

CricViz reports it as the longest spell by a pace bowler in international cricket since 2006, but his job wasn’t even half done.

Like the best of bands the all-rounder can play both kinds of music: country and western.

Stokes was superhuman in that match but in a way it is reassuring for the swelling ranks who struggle with the ordinary to read him acknowledge his mental and physical fragility in recent times.

“I feel much better about everything from my finger to my mental wellbeing,” he said in the newspaper column where he declared his availability,” he said.

“I know I can focus once again on playing my best cricket Down Under this winter.

“I probably didn‘t realise just how much of an issue the finger was causing me until I got it sorted the second time around. But I had also been struggling with bubble life and events off the field. I don’t want anyone to feel the way I did, because I wasn’t in a good place and I’m not afraid to admit it.”

He missed the last Ashes here due to the fall out from an ugly street brawl and the series was poorer for that.

His availability for this series has added some sizzle to the summer and reframed the contest. If you were Australian you would rather him on your team, but if you are a cricket fan you rejoice that he is in the series.