MATCH STORIES
Follow UsCometh the hour, cometh the man.
Ben Stokes’ Test career couldn’t be summed up better. He’s always the right man at the right place. Be it Headingley, Cape Town or Lord’s. He’s perhaps an outlier on such occasions; there aren’t many like him.
Heading into this series, a similar perception surrounded him. Stokes was going to be the X-factor, but the game majorly changed. There wasn't any of that extra pressure on Stokes with the ball, with his dodgy knee. The 32-year-old was just going to play as a specialist batter.
That was like the perfect blessing in disguise. It also ensured that one of Stokes' biggest concerns - an injury - was taken away from his mind.
No bowling, none of that pressure, only batting. That was the only expectation from him, and guess what?
He faltered big time.
Shouldn’t Stokes be the biggest flagbearer of England’s attacking approach? If this series has taught us anything, Stokes has been caught between his natural build-up style of cricket and the team’s Bazball style cricket.
This time, there was no room for excuses as well not just because he was playing as a pure batter but also because England had the big advantage on three out of the five Tests, where they won the toss.
Winning the toss is a huge factor in India! Ask Australia, South Africa or New Zealand.
Except for Hyderabad, on none of those three occasions did England convert that ‘advantage, ' and they faltered under the pressure. Stokes did come in precarious positions, at 121/4, 140/4, 136/4, 194/5, 220/4, 28/4, 109/4, 110/4, 175/4 and 92/4.
It wasn’t easy, but that’s exactly where the left-handed Stokes has often stood out.
The clutch in Stokes has often come out on top on such occasions, but in India, it was blank. Out of the ten innings on this tour, Stokes has had five single-digit scores. It wasn’t just that; he had only passed the 50-run mark on one occasion.
It was in Hyderabad, where he scored a 70, that led to England’s only Test win on this tour. Since Bazball took over, only in one series has a middle-order batter (min 3 innings) averaged lower than what Stokes averaged in India this tour.
That was Joe Root against South Africa. Stokes has suffered an absolute shocker of a series, with an average of 19.9 and just 199 runs across ten innings. In a min 5 innings Test series, it was the second-worst average for any English captain in India, behind Nigel Howard’s 17.2.
Stokes’ numbers could have been ignored if it had been a recent phenomenon. But the left-hander has suffered the wrath of a long tour for the last three years.
Across the last three long away tours, India (2021), Australia (2022) and India (2024), Stokes averages only 25.37, 23.60 and 19.90. Looks like Stokes saved his worst for the best occasion.
It wasn’t that Stokes’ was suffering; it was that Stokes was suffering in the same fashion, over, and over and over again.
So, how did India find an edge over Stokes?
Spin.
Seven dismissals out of ten were against spin.
He didn’t average much - 22.43 - and his strike rate didn’t inspire much confidence either, with 59.3 in the series. But what made it worse is that he wasn’t staying too long at the crease against the tweakers, playing only 37.9 deliveries on average before getting out.
On five occasions, the left-hander was dismissed in his first 30 deliveries against spinners, showing how he wasn’t naturally confident during his stay at the crease. His indecisiveness against the tweakers was for everyone to see.
The frustrating part was the pattern was quite evident. You don’t even have to go and ask Stokes.
Six out of his seven dismissals against spin have been balls hitting the wicket, where he only averages 9.7 in the entire series. Barring that one caught-behind dismissal, all of his dismissals have been either LBW or bowled, often exposing his frailties in front of the spinner.
Stokes was an anomaly, too, in this English setup. While some preferred to step down the track and take the attack to the Indian spinners, the other English batters employed sweeps and reverse sweeps to the fullest effect, thwarting the plans of the Indian spinners.
That’s where his reluctance to be proactive came hurting. Defence is the best form of attack, but not for Stokes. Stokes has played 62 backfoot defences, scoring ONE RUN, with two wickets, averaging 0.5. If that isn't enough, his front-foot defences didn't yield him much success either, with an average of three and four dismissals, scoring just 12 runs off 87 deliveries.
However, whenever the left-hander has stepped down the track, he’s put the pressure back on the opponents, with 21 runs off seven deliveries, striking at 300, which goes with the Bazball ethos.
Barring the one dismissal against Kuldeep Yadav, Stokes’ sweep shots weren’t too bad either, yielding him seven runs with a strike-rate of 140. Despite having such shots in his arsenal, Stokes decided that playing the spinners from the crease was the best possible fit, and the results were abysmal.
“When India get on top, men around the bat, the quality of bowlers like Ashwin, Jadeja, Kuldeep... you've got to find ways of pushing men out and then comes with risk,” said Stokes in the aftermath of the Test series.
“It can be your downfall but if the intent is there, you hold your hands up.”
While the intent never existed, the downfall was quite steep for Ben Stokes.
