Ben Stokes’ cricket career is in top gear, just like his whirlwind cameo of 78 runs off just 57 deliveries in the Manchester Test against the West Indies.
Bringing out the long handle to land some mighty blows at the Old Trafford Cricket Ground, Stokes’ rapid display put England with an excellent chance to level the three-match series against the men from the Caribbean.
The England all-rounder’s blazing exploits on Monday were a far cry from his equally impressive effort in the first innings which fetched him his 10th Test hundred. With his century against West Indies on Friday, the star man joined an exclusive club of all-rounders who have performed the double of 150 Test wickets and 10 tons. It wasn’t really a vintage ton from Stokes in Manchester, with the 29-year-old breaching triple figures only after a 255-ball vigil at the crease.
It was the slowest of the 10 Test centuries to have come off Stokes’ bat, and a stark contrast to the 163-ball double hundred he smashed against South Africa in 2016. Having done a patient job for England in a mammoth stand of 260 runs with Dom Sibley, Stokes did shift up a gear or two before eventually falling to an attempted reverse sweep against Kemar Roach.
Before his dismissal, the England vice-captain had added a further 73 runs in 100 balls to advance the home team’s bid to level the three-match series. In an innings of two halves from the left-hander, he once showcased his ability to shift gears at will according to the situation on hand.
With the Windies bowlers, led by Jason Holder, maintaining their discipline on a slow Old Trafford surface, Stokes was willing to bide his time and persevere in attritional style. Despite the slow scoring rate, he was in complete command at the batting crease and was quick to dispatch the odd loose delivery to the boundary.
Having strengthened England’s position from a shaky start with the bat, Stokes seamlessly stepped up the offensive in the latter half of his stay as the boundaries started to flow in Manchester. In the end, a quest to add quick runs proved to be his undoing but not before Stokes had batted West Indies out of the second Test. And with his all-out attack in the next innings, the star had all but sealed the desperately needed victory.
While the importance of Stokes’ Manchester salvo might pale in comparison to his Ashes heroics in Headingley last year, both the performances perfectly encapsulate his ability to shift smoothly through the gears. The Leeds showing will rightly go down as a contender for the greatest Test innings of all time and was similarly an innings of two halves.
In that memorable innings against Australia, Stokes collected just three runs from the first 70 deliveries he faced. With wickets tumbling quickly at the other end, the England all-rounder threw caution to the wind and plundered 132 runs in the next 149 deliveries to script the most epic of wins for England.
As a batsman on the top of his game, he just seems to possess many modes in what has been a sensational 12 months of his England career. The same characteristics were on display in England’s World Cup-winning campaign last year as well, and served as a prelude to what was to come in the Ashes subsequently.
His five fifties, including the one in the World Cup final, were instrumental to England and displayed his wide range of style as a batsman. When the team was in crisis, Stokes was ready to bail them out with gritty performances like his unbeaten 84 off 98 deliveries in the final at Lord’s or the 115-ball 89 in a losing cause against Australia.
When England were on top, on the other hand, Stokes showed his devastating side by smashing 79 runs off 54 deliveries against India in Edgbaston. There is something really captivating about seeing Stokes move up the gears with the bat in hand, and the Manchester display is the latest evidence of his mastery of the art.
There is nothing with the bat in hand that he honestly cannot do, and is now a man for all occasions. Be it a top-order collapse or the need for some quick runs on the board, there is no batsman England would want more at the crease than Stokes.
Arguably, no other batsman in the ongoing era does this as well as Stokes. South Africa stalwart AB de Villiers is another proponent of this art, though his star is on the decline at the age of 36.
Stokes, however, is on the rise and just starting to hit his prime if the last 12 months are anything to go by. His World Cup and Ashes heroics in 2019, a match-winning ton in Port Elizabeth against South Africa earlier this year and the latest showings against the West Indies are a testament to a star who has the world at his feet.
He is a man of many gears with his career currently in the highest gear, and there will undoubtedly be plenty more performances to savour from a player carrying a Midas touch at the moment.
