Say hello to Ben Stokes 2.0: the run accumulator

The man who stole his thunder? Dominic Sibley of all people. Through his unbeaten 86* at stumps on Day 1, for which he took just the 253 balls, Sibley had attracted all the attention towards him. There were lots of opinions; there was a lot of chatter. About his batting, of course. Sibley was the talk of the town, not for his strokeplay, but for his approach. While many regarded him the saviour and the right-handed second-coming of Alastair Cook the country had been yearning for, a fair few, at the same time, were also unhappy about his intent - especially versus spin. But in the process of raving, discussing and debating about Sibley, fans, journos and experts, for once, had completely forgotten about the existence of Benjamin Andrew Stokes, who, himself, ended day one on 59*.

Over the past year, especially post his Headingley heroics, the sheer, staggering amount of runs scored by Stokes has almost been taken for granted. Such is the high bar he has set for himself that anything he does that is remotely non-superman’esque is blatantly disregarded. And for 264 balls here at Old Trafford, that is exactly what happened - despite him having scored a century, there were a negligible few infatuated by what he did because it was not fancy or eye-catching. And that, in itself, is a testament to how far along Stokes has come purely as a batsman. 

Stokes' innings today at Old Trafford depicted exactly what he has now become: a world-class batsman who is getting better by the day and can be blindly relied on. Walking in at 80/3 with England just having lost skipper Root and with Windies smelling blood, the task he had in his hands was by no means anything remotely easy. Yet he made it look so simple; he gave the feeling from the very first ball he faced that he had everything under control. 

And it was only fitting that his flawless knock was aided by the one quality that has helped him make the transition from an x-factor to a run-machine - maturity. The eventual scorecard would read that Stokes hit a fantabulous 176 off 356 balls but behind the knock was courage, commitment and an unbowed will to succeed.

It’s this patience, coupled with his consistency, that has enabled Stokes to take his batting to a whole new level. In fact, Stokes’ consistency in the past 12 months has been pretty absurd. In his last 15 innings, the left-hander has crossed the 20-run mark 13 times and he has also averaged just over 54 in this time period. If anything, he has shown in this last year that he no longer sees himself as just an all-rounder who is equally able with bat and ball (say like Shakib); he has shown that he’s keen to firmly assert himself as a world-class, elite batsman who would walk into any side in the world just as a specialist batsman. Could we have said the same about Stokes the cricketer three years ago? Perhaps not.

Perhaps it’s the fact that he’s so good with the ball - he has averaged 29 with the ball since 2019 -  that his batting exploits have gone criminally unnoticed. That coupled with his sheer presence and match-winning ability has taken the spotlight away from his batting, but make no mistake, despite averaging a tad below 38 with the bat, Stokes is someone who is on the rise. Not only is he someone on the rise as a batsman, but he is someone who is indisputably on his way towards greatness. Kallis averaged 55 with the bat and 32 with the ball in his career; Stokes has averaged 52 with the bat and 29 with the ball since 2019.  By the time his career comes to a close, it's doubtful if Stokes’ records would look anything as shiny as Kallis, but with every passing game, it's becoming crystal clear that he, at least, is going to end up shattering the legacy of Flintoff.