Ben Stokes played his 100th Test in Rajkot last week, an occasion preceded by countless breathless profiles, articles that portrayed him almost as a superhuman, playing his own game, dancing to his own tune. He was described as an innovator, a visionary and a masterly captain. Well, sport has a way of putting you in your place and India certainly did that.
I don’t want to minimise Stokes’s achievements. Visiting Lord’s and the Oval during the Ashes series last summer I did a few Q&As with fans in lunch breaks. There is no doubt the public were enthralled by his team. As captain he inherited a group that were playing poorly and losing. He has taken the pressure off them, galvanised them and given them a method they are happy to use.
But I am left thinking, is that what success is? Is it success for a team to entertain the public whether they win, lose or draw? Or is success getting the job done: winning matches, winning series, competing for the World Test Championship? I don’t for a moment believe Stokes thinks it’s all crash, bang, wallop. The evidence for that is his superb innings in the 2019 World Cup final, when he adapted better than anyone to a slow wicket, and in the way he constructed his magnificent century against Australia at Headingley a few weeks later.
He is a thinking cricketer and his 100th Test will have been a chastening one. It feels like as captain he has accomplished half a mission. He has transformed the mood around his side, but there is still work to do on their mindset.
Going into day three with the overnight score 207 for two after India’s first-innings of 445 and Ravichandran Ashwin at least temporarily out of the game because of a family emergency, a ruthless team would have gone about trying to knock off the deficit, keep India in the field, wear down their bowlers and put themselves in a position of advantage. This England side collapsed.
As I watched, I thought about the great football teams and their refusal to become distracted, first winning the physical battle and then matches. I remembered Tiger Woods at his best, knowing he would sometimes have to be tactical and game-savvy when closing out tournaments, and the mental strength that took Novak Djokovic to 24 grand slam titles. The great athletes and teams share some characteristics that are still missing from England.
The problem is, they don’t always seem to realise that. They are busy playing their game, being entertainers,on and off the field. Sometimes their press conferences are like listening to Muhammad Ali trash‑talking, like Ben Duckett saying “they can have as many as they want and we’ll go and get them”. Ali was a brilliant entertainer but he was known as the Greatest and, as good as his first‑innings century was, Duckett is not.
Does he reflect on that moment? Does Joe Root reflect on his first-innings dismissal, reverse-ramping the ball straight to slip? Because if the only goal is entertainment then that is absolutely on-brand and they don’t need to put themselves through any recrimination, any learning, any honesty.
Sometimes I wonder if there is something fundamentally unserious about the cricketers we are producing. Many county academies are pushing power hitting. They want young players to have a strike rate of more than 100 even when the pitch and match situation are not necessarily conducive to that. Young players who are yet to hone their skills are being told not to worry, to have fun, to go for it. Where are the Test run-scorers of tomorrow and how are they being developed?
I read about Yashasvi Jaiswal, who scored his second double‑century of the series in Rajkot, and his extraordinary childhood and upbringing – leaving home at 11, living in a tent for two years, selling street food. You can’t help but compare that with his English equivalents. Ollie Pope and Zak Crawley are superb players whose youth was spent at Cranleigh and Tonbridge private schools.
England lost the third Test by 434 runs and Stokes immediately welcomed the great opportunity his side now has to win the series 3‑2. You wouldn’t expect him to say anything different. While it is important to learn from mistakes, there is no benefit from dwelling on defeat. When they were 2-0 down in the Ashes that seemed to reinforce their approach and improve their focus. Here we are again, only this time 2-1 down and in away conditions.
They have some extremely talented players and Duckett, Pope and Crawley have made huge progress on this tour. But some senior members of the squad are struggling badly – Jonny Bairstow is averaging 17, Root 12.83, Ben Foakes is yet to play an impactful innings and Stokes will be looking for improvement from himself. Perhaps the carefree nature that contributed to them finding themselves in this position may help them to recover from it. If there was one team that has a chance of parking a terrible result and starting afresh it is this one.
England are one down with two to play, have just endured a humiliating defeat and they know that on paper the bowling attacks are a complete mismatch. They have played a lot of fun cricket, but sometimes they need to play smart cricket –, the kind at which Stokes on his best days has shown he is so gifted. It will take all of his inspirational leadership to keep this group together and convince them to look at the two remaining matches as real opportunities.
He has already had a fabulous career and it is a remarkable achievement to play 100 Tests and to create such a fun side. As he starts on his second century, he needs to focus on creating a winning one.
