RAJKOT: As England began practising at the soon-to-be-rechristened Niranjan Shah Stadium here on Tuesday, they would have been happy to see their captain
Ben Stokes
running in to bowl at full tilt. It’s unlikely, though, that the allrounder, who had announced before the start of this series that he won’t bowl after undergoing a knee surgery in November, will indeed turn his arm over when the third Test begins here from Thursday.
This match marks a major milestone in the career of a man who, beyond being a great player, will be remembered for the way he radically transformed the way a team plays its cricket.
The Rajkot Test will be the 32-year-old’s 100th Test.
Incidentally, this is the only venue in India where Stokes has scored a Test century (128), back in the 2016-17 series. The left-hander has played 11 Tests in India, averaging 32.47, with four fifties besides that century. Overall, since making his debut in an Ashes Test at Adelaide in 2013, Stokes has amassed 6,251 runs at an average of 36.34, and claimed 197 wickets at an average of 32.07 in 99 Tests.
One of England’s biggest match-winners, Stokes is creating a Test captaincy legacy, built around introducing the entertaining ‘
Bazball
’ style in tandem with head coach
Brendon McCullum
which has led England to win 14 out of the 20 Tests since the duo has been in charge.
On Tuesday, Stokes’ teammate
Ollie Pope
lauded his skipper’s special feat, while marvelling at his ability to raise his game and play outstanding knocks, especially when the pressure on him and the team was at its highest.
“He has probably changed the game in a lot of respects, he has just got a way of bringing out the very best of him when the team needs it. Even in the Ashes at Lord’s (155 in the second innings) , which I remember thinking about ‘how does he obviously take it to a new level when all the pressure is on him’,” Pope told the media on Tuesday.
“The amount of times he’s done that over his career of 99 Tests so far is unbelievable. For anyone to play 100 Tests is an unbelievable achievement. He’s obviously had highs and lows in his career, but what he’s done (since) he’s been captain, he’s been amazing and there’s so many special moments that he can look back on his career,” Pope gushed.
The 26-year-old, who cracked a matchwinning 196 in the first Test at Hyderabad, revealed that he himself owed a lot to Stokes, who asked him to bat at the pivotal No. 3 spot after taking over as the England Test captain.
“I was there in the eleven when he took (on) the captaincy role. He made it pretty clear that I was the man for the No. 3 job and that just gave me a lot of confidence. His man management was excellent. He seemed like he’s got as much time for everyone in the squad whether that be the physios or the doctors, as he does for his eleven on the pitch as well,” the England batsman said.
‘We’re not allowed to say Bazball’
For all the applause that England are earning after having adopted ‘Bazball’ as their style of play in Tests, they are also facing criticism from some former players about being too obsessed with it.
After England lost the second Test at Visakhapatnam by 106 runs, former England captain Alastair Cook had said that former captain Joe Root, who has got scores of 29, 2, 5 & 16 in the series so far, seemed to be “struggling sometimes with the tempo of the ‘Bazball’ era,” and was thus losing his “balance of attack and defence.”
His view was seconded by another former England captain, Michael Vaughan, who told Root to “forget Bazball.”
Pope, though, revealed that the England team are forbidden to use the word, and that his team’s approach “wasn’t always about attacking, but absorbing pressure.”
“Everyone bats differently in this team. We’re not allowed to say Bazball, but the start that we’re making isn’t always about attacking. A lot of the time it’s about absorbing pressure when we need to absorb pressure,” he said.
English (US) ·