Ben Stokes cements legacy as all-format great after seeing England home once again
Ben Stokes #BenStokes
Matthew Mott had it right. “If there is someone you wanted out there, it would be him, wouldn’t it?” said the head coach of Ben Stokes in the moments after England’s victory.
The big moments find him. That was the line used by Stokes’ friend and colleague Joe Root in the documentary about his tumultuous life and career released earlier this year. And here we were again, with a T20 World Cup final on the line, against a buoyant Pakistan attack, in a feverish Melbourne Cricket Ground, with 80,000 people watching through their hands.
At the end of it all, Stokes had secured the last major international honour to evade him, rising a little further up the list of England greats and, at 31, has power to add yet. Just as in 2019, he had guided England to a World Cup win, embellishing the legend that also contained the most epic of Ashes wins and so many other titanic Test performances. In doing so, Stokes put right a statistical quirk – that he had never made a T20 half-century – and buried the bad memories of 2016, when in his words, he “blew up” England’s chances.
It was far from certain that Stokes would be involved in all this. His life has been rocky for the last few years, with the Bristol case, the death of his father Ged, and subsequent mental health struggles. He sat out last year’s T20 World Cup, and has retired from ODIs. Test cricket is his primary focus.
As a result, there was much perfectly reasonable debate about whether he should have been in England’s squad for this tournament. Before the three-match series in Australia that preceded the World Cup, Stokes had not played a T20 match at any level since his mental health break in July 2021. He had not played an international in the format since March of that year, 18 months earlier. T20 is a fast-moving format, and the game has changed plenty since then.
And it was not like Stokes had a record that demanded selection. He was best known in the format for being walloped for four successive sixes by Carlos Brathwaite in the 2016 final and, in 11 years as a T20 cricketer for England, he averaged 20 with the bat. To compound things he was handed a new, tough role at No4 in a team that already contained a left-handed anchor like him, Dawid Malan.
While his bowling proved a revelation, Stokes started slowly with the bat, making 49 runs in six innings. But his selection was not about run of the mill T20s, or even the early stages of this tournament. It was about when the knockout pressure rose; and when it did, he thrived. First with an unbeaten 42 in the tight chase against Sri Lanka, then the maiden half-century in the final.
Stokes knew this was not an innings to match the twin peaks of 2019, Lord’s and Headingley. Stokes was desperate to deflect the praise for England’s victory, especially to another all-rounder with an impeccable sense of the biggest moments, Sam Curran. He knew that for a large period, he stunk the place out. “If he batted like that in a Test match, he would drop himself,” Jos Buttler said, able to joke in the warm glow of victory.
Stokes started solidly, finding his way to 17 off 16 balls. Then, with Shadab Khan and Naseem Shah mesmeric, he went into a funk, taking just four runs from 15 balls. There were plays and misses, heaves straight to fielders, and he could hardly lay bat on Naseem. In that period, Harry Brook succumbed to the pressure and, with rain a concern, Pakistan slipped ahead on Duckworth-Lewis-Stern for the first time.
Stokes’ saviour complex, his belief that it must be him to get the job done, guarantees drama. Drama is also a certainty with Pakistan. Together, it proved a toxic combination, and a fittingly tense scenario to an excellent tournament.
Pakistan’s two senior, star quicks, Haris Rauf and Shaheen Shah Afridi, spent time off the field injured, before returning. It was the brevity of Shaheen’s return that turned the game back England’s way. He managed one ball, a dot to Moeen Ali, before hobbling off again. He was replaced by Iftikhar Ahmed’s part-time off-spin, and Stokes tucked in.
His timing was still not perfect. He was almost caught twice at long-off, once just short of Babar Azam, and once just over his head for six. The sting had been taken out of the situation, and England needed 28 from 24. Three boundaries for Moeen in the following over made it a formality, but it was Stokes not out at the end. “He is the ultimate competitor,” said Buttler, “and I think he timed it perfectly”.
Stokes had ridden the wave, recognising that there were no prizes for purity of ball striking, or winning the game with overs to spare. All that mattered was that someone got them there. Who else?
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