Ben Stokes

[alfie]

Stokes with the all clear from injury and added to the Ashes squad ! Apparently over his personal issues and ready to go : has to be great news for Joe Root and his men to have him aboard ; and good news for anyone who prizes competitive cricket.

Doesn't make England suddenly favourites ; but surely going to help them keep Australia honest. Nathan Lyon will be pleased...

[Durhamfootman]

Nathan Lyon will be pleased...

he might have to start practising his catching

[Durhamfootman]

and get his captain to work on his desperation review taking

[sussexpob]

Stokes with the all clear from injury and added to the Ashes squad ! Apparently over his personal issues and ready to go : has to be great news for Joe Root and his men to have him aboard ; and good news for anyone who prizes competitive cricket.

Doesn't make England suddenly favourites ; but surely going to help them keep Australia honest. Nathan Lyon will be pleased...

Not played in a while though, so might take a test or two to warm up.

Makes more sense now why England announced 17 players and not 18
...must have known he'd be fit while keeping that option open if he was mentally right.

[meninblue]

Two crucial innings which helped draw in Sydney with scores of 66 and 60 in first and second innings respectively.

[alfie]

Two crucial innings which helped draw in Sydney with scores of 66 and 60 in first and second innings respectively.

Yes indeed . Started to look more like himself for the first time in the series - despite his injury. As Sussex predicted , it took him a few games to get up to speed.

Rather a pity that for various reasons Australia has never really seen the best of Stokes on their own soil : in 2013 he was just starting out ; missed 2017 for different reasons ; and has played this one off the back of no cricket for months. Maybe he will still be firing in 2025 ...

[meninblue]

Ben Stokes with a new role of England Test Captain.

Will he curb down the attacking game in test matches or will he bowl less. Interesting to see if he changes his batting and bowling after being the captain.

[alfie]

Ben Stokes with a new role of England Test Captain.

Will he curb down the attacking game in test matches or will he bowl less. Interesting to see if he changes his batting and bowling after being the captain.

Tentative answers from the first game : No and Yes. Looks as if attack as the best means of defence remains his policy : England's bowlers seemed to be generally urged to go for wickets throughout and not worry too much about the scoring ...was notable , for example , that Anderson's economy rate was far from its usual miserly self , though his wickets showed he actually bowled rather well. And no sign the batsmen (least of all himself) have been asked to restrain their attacking impulses.

He certainly bowled rather less than I'd have expected - and less than I thought he ought have , to be honest , especially in the first innings. May just be this game ; may be easing into the bowling this season...time will tell.

What I do like is he's been playing with a smile on his face , even through the bad bits ; which is a nice change from Root's sometimes rather glum and resigned visage when England were under the cosh.

[Arthur Crabtree]

There was a shot where he was making himself smile.

[Durhamfootman]

looked like a bit of a fun chat between him and Trent B. Nice to see. Sport should always be played with good humour alongside the intensity

[meninblue]

Wonderful achievement for Ben Stokes as captain as his team defeated Pakistan at home. Probably this was the first whitewash ever for Pakistan in home test series ?

[Durhamfootman]

just a bit unlucky that the england women won the big footie championship or he might easily have found himself winning the sports personaility of the year again, plus ending up captain of the team of the year.

Atherton described him recently as the most significant man in world cricket (or something like that)

George Dobell claimed that he's a better captain than Mike Brierley

and I heard someone else (can't remember who) claim that he may one day be credited as the man who saved test cricket

Now that's a whole lot of hyperbole, but tbh it's quite hard to argue with any of it. Maybe in a years time we'll be able to pick all that apart, but at this moment in time, it's almost impossible not to get very, very excited about England cricket

and, of course, no-one is talking any more about how the whole of the English domestic game needs root and branch reform.... which is something that I think SP and I reflected on earlier this year.... the only time anyone thinks an 18 county CC is not fit for purpose is when England are doing badly. When they do well, that structure is fine.... so I'm going to add some hyperbole of my own.... Stokes may turn out to be the man who saved the future of 6 county cricket clubs.... at least for a little while

[Gingerfinch]

Watching Stokes on SPOTY the other night, I got the impression he like most of us, couldn't care much for it.

[Slipstream]

I wonder how Root feels about the new captain's success. Roughly the same players but a different team under Stokes.

Root didn't want to give up the captaincy but after he admitted he was a shadow of himself.

Root as captain 46.44 - under Stokes 52.85
Bairstow under Root - 29.57 - under Stokes 75.66
Crawley 27.80 - 29.85
Foakes 28.11 - 43.42
Pope 29.64 - 37.78
Stokes 36.98 - 39.37
Robinson 21.28 - 17.66
Anderson 21.17 - 19.18
Wood 29.94- 27.30

Broad 26.20 - 27.17
Leach 31.88 - 40.29

[Arthur Crabtree]

Thought Pope was doing better than that.

Noticed that over the past two years, Leach is the top wicket taker in Tests. Not a great average though.