There was a brief period before lunch at Lord’s when England looked to be in command, if not of the Test match, then at least of their immediate destiny. As Lord’s hummed and chattered in the sunshine, the clock not yet ticked round to the approved champagne-popping hour just before midday, it seemed possible England’s batsman might even be about to provide a show to fit the occasion. Or in other words, for a while this looked like it might be a Ben Stokes day.
Saturday of the Lord’s Test is an occasion that still seems to demand a little extra burnish, played out in front of a crowd that retains a kind of shared red-trousered folk memory of the social season, pegged out around Henley, Wimbledon, Lord’s, and assorted other summer beanfeasts. The narrow public spaces are extra-crammed with pleasure-seekers. The boater count, the combined chino-acreage, reach a seasonal pitch. And the entire elegantly shadowed micro-climate seems to hum with a fresh pitch of self-regarding event glamour.
For Stokes, this was a rare opportunity at the start of play. There may be one or two things in life better than being a thrillingly talented 24-year-old facing three sessions of fine, even batting conditions on a sunny Lord’s Saturday. But not many spring to mind. In the event Stokes played a dreamy, forceful innings that is unlikely to alter much the destiny of this match. But which confirmed, once again, his own elevated status in the past six months, from half-cocked lower-order all-rounder to a genuinely high-grade batsman of uncluttered, muscular class.
From his first scoring shot here, a supple steer down to third man, to the surprise of his dismissal on 87, betrayed by his only false shot of the day, Stokes confirmed his status as one of the very few players in this England lineup Australia fear. And not for his aggression, or his brawn, but simply for his skills. In fact, at times with a bat in his hand, Stokes could almost be Australian, some high-class Perth-raised biffer who relishes quick bowling and quick pitches, and whose aggression seems entirely unforced, a natural, neutral gear.
There was an urge early in Stokes’s career to compare him to Andrew Flintoff, another front-on muscular cricketer, but Stokes showed again here that there is a real depth and purity to his batting. He scores effortlessly, following the prompts of his arms and wrists and a bat face that just loves the ball. Here his first ball from Mitchell Johnson was uppercut over gully to third man, Stokes arching his back and swaying out of line like a boxer slipping the jab.
On 48 Johnson nipped one back through a curtain-rail defensive swish, the ball humming just past off stump. Stokes nodded, settled into that easy stance and very calmly and lovingly murdered the next one through cover to go to his half-century off 67 balls. Johnson was pulled through midwicket and Josh Hazlewood driven through mid-off, a stroke of quiet violence that from behind seems to involve no more than a flicker of the shoulder muscles. The hundred partnership with Cook came and went, and once again the thought occurred that however England’s on-the-hoof Ashes summer ends, the decision to move Stokes up the order may be Paul Farbrace’s single most sensible contribution to the team’s progress in the next few years.
In February Paul Collingwood likened not batting Stokes in the top six in his early England career to playing Cristiano Ronaldo at right-back. And this summer, as his Test batting average has climbed from 28 to 39, Stokes has in a sense become the player he always was in the first place, the high-class middle-order batsman obscured at times by his ability to bowl slightly callow spells of genuine fast bowling. Aged 19, Stokes was batting No4 for Durham, becoming in the process the only Englishman besides Denis Compton to score five first-class hundreds before the age of 20. He was, is and remains a batsman, and a seriously good one too.
As Cook danced down the pitch to Nathan Lyon and played a horrible spooned drive past mid-off there was even an encouraging sense for a while of Stokes as the senior man, the batsman in charge. As he is in a sense. Certainly Stokes is the keystone in that elegant, occasionally rather wasteful, deep lower middle order. Jos Buttler was becalmed here by some wide, dry bowling and still looks like a player who needs a project, a target, a deadline to clarify his mind and galvanise that bold but rather hesitant range of skills. Moeen Ali remains a pointlessly luxurious delight at No8, ice cream for dinner down the order.
If Stokes offers certainty at No6, he provides some ballast to the top order too. England do have a problem here. Two members of the top three are stretching, currently, to reach this standard of Test cricket. Ian Bell is playing like a man whose memory of the good times is fading. Stokes meanwhile, looks ever more uncluttered, a top-order player who could probably bat at four should Root move up to three, where he really should be in this team anyway.
Here Stokes moved to 77 with a clump through the off side, reminder of those first reports of the selector James Whittaker raving at his first sight of the teenage Stokes’s power through the off side. Again though he failed to transform an innings full of measured, low throttle violence into a hundred, chopping a ball that kept low from Mitchell Marsh on to his stumps 15 minutes before lunch. Australia’s bowling unit has looked to have the greater class and depth in this Test. They should win it from here. For England a summer of rebuilding was always likely. In Stokes, at least, they have a point of genuine strength.
