Why England needs its miracle man

The one change Ben Stokes needs to make so he can take on the England captaincy without it breaking him.

Ben Stokes’s dismissal on Tuesday all but ended England’s hopes of mounting a comeback in the third Test at the MCG Picture: Getty Images

When play restarted at the MCG on Tuesday, England’s position was parlous at 51 runs behind but all hope was not quite extinguished. With six wickets left and Joe Root and Ben Stokes at the crease, an escape act was still possible. As the captain said during his post-mortem examination: “You walk out with Ben Stokes and you feel like anything’s possible.”

Stokes is a cricketer who can make miracles happen, which is why Root was so delighted when the all-rounder made himself available for the tour two weeks after the squad had been announced. Stokes was satisfied that his finger injury had healed and felt in the right frame of mind, having taken a break since July for his mental health.

The miracle, of course, did not happen. Stokes was unable to break free of the chains that Australia’s disciplined attack had kept him in for three matches. He drove Pat Cummins for four and then lashed Mitchell Starc through the off side in a manner that suggested he meant business, but two balls later Starc responded with a magnificent ball that jagged off the pitch and bowled him between bat and pad.

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England’s Prometheus unbound has not been seen, and this goes a long way towards explaining the team’s wholesale failure. If their most dynamic player cannot throw punches back, it is little wonder that the initiative has stayed so firmly with Australia.

Stokes’s numbers in this series are shocking in their absence of heft. Across six innings he has a highest score of 34 and averages 16.83, but perhaps the most telling figure is a strike rate of 31, lower than all but Jos Buttler among the 15 players England have used. Even more disappointing is his bowling: four wickets at 62.25 apiece and an economy rate of 5.01 an over, way short of what might be expected.

Of course we expected far too much. Root may have known it was a long shot to expect Stokes to be his old self. Perhaps even Stokes himself suspected as much. To come into such a big series so undercooked, having not played a competitive fixture for four months, was an impossibly tall order.

For good reason, the 30-year-old has looked like someone playing catch-up, someone using Tests as a means of getting himself into form. As a batsman, he has taken exaggerated steps across his stumps to defend, limiting his scoring options and concentrating on survival. Australia have been under no obligation to soften their attacking fields and they have sensed that he will not hurt them if they bowl straight.

The man they feared – the Test-match batsman poised to turn himself, chameleon-like, into a one-day destroyer, as he did at Headingley in 2019 – has not shown up. They still celebrated his wicket wildly, because they know the time will come when he gets the magic back, but whatever happens now it is too late to save this series.

The disastrous nature of this tour has shifted the narrative. The future of Root as captain will be a constant topic of debate until the team fly home, and beyond. Root must make his own decision about whether he wants to carry on. If he does, no one in authority is likely to demand his departure. But if he feels he has had enough, as may well be the case, a replacement must be found and Stokes will be the first name to be considered.

Stokes is vice-captain. He is the man who stood in for one Test at the start of the 2020 English summer when Root was on paternity leave. He was the man called on to lead when Covid wiped out an entire white-ball squad for a three-match series. He is the man to whom the dressing room turns for inspiration. That will not have changed just because he has had a few quiet matches.

An arrangement could be reached. If Chris Silverwood, the head coach, goes, as he must, then Root may persuade himself to continue for another year or so and give Stokes time to prepare himself for the succession. As time goes by, Stokes as a Test-match cricketer is likely to remain a force as a batsman but become less influential with the ball. That may give him scope to take on the captaincy without it breaking him.

You certainly cannot write him off. At some point he will be unbound again.