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Follow UsNo one had doubted for a moment that Ben Stokes won’t make his return to the World Cup. After all, despite a drop in popularity, the ICC ODI World Cup is still the biggest trophy in cricket, and Benjamin Stokes is one of the sport's biggest superstars.
Stokes did return, and in the third match of the ongoing New Zealand Tour of England, he announced his comeback with a thumping 182 off just 124 balls. It was not only the highest score ever by an English batter, surpassing Jason Roy’s 180, but at one point, he looked set to be the first-ever non-opener to score a double hundred.
That was not to be, but by this knock, Stokes has nullified all criticisms of him not being good enough to play just as a batter in this English side. Before this 182, Stokes’s ODI average was below 40 - not very high for someone of his reputation. But numbers need the added context of impact when it comes to players like him.
He is a proper clutch player, raising his game at the ‘big’ moments by summoning his indomitable spirit that pushes him to compete harder than most. He averaged 66.43 with an SR of 93.2 in the last 50-over World Cup that he played. Oh, and he scored 84 and became Player Of The Match in the World Cup final that England went on to win. Not to forget that his highest T20I score, 52*, also came in a World Cup Final just last year, where his team lifted the trophy.
He’s like the proverbial carbon that turns into a diamond under pressure, just that it takes thousands of years for that to happen naturally. But for Stokes to shine on the ground like a diamond, he just needs the occasion to motivate him.
"The words 'World Cup' are pretty inspiring," Stokes said to the BBC a few days ago. "Going into this one as world champions, playing a part in that in 2019, which was an unbelievable moment for us as a team and myself… the idea of going in and potentially being able to win back-to-back World Cups was one of the big things."
Those who have seen Sam Mendes’s documentary, “Ben Stokes: Phoenix from the Ashes”, know precisely why Ben Stokes said that (your cue to watch it if you haven’t!). And those who saw him play yesterday also understood how the word ‘World Cup’ inspires him.
The knee that had reduced him to a batter from a batting allrounder was troubling him again. England were in trouble at 13 for 2 when he came in to bat. In front of him was another player who was making a comeback in his nation's side for the upcoming ICC World Cup, Trent Boult, and he was bowling swinging Thunderboults.
Stokes combined with Dawid Malan for a 199-run stand in 165 balls that completely pulverised the Kiwis. Boult’s early double strike felt like an event from the Paleolithic age as Stokes started bludgeoning the balls through the leg side for boundaries and sixes. Some were proper slogs as if the Big Ben of English cricket didn’t care about maintaining his shape. All that mattered was the rope, and he crossed it 23 times yesterday!
He bludgeoned Lockie Ferguson, scoring 56 runs off just 30 balls, and the Blackcaps' fastest bowler gave 80 runs in his nine overs. Even when his knee troubled him, he stood his ground and sent the ball to the midwicket fence as he pulled and hooked with disdain.
In an England squad that’s already filled with all-rounders, it doesn’t matter if Stokes can’t bowl. But the defending world champions needed the hero of their triumph back, and by this inning, Stokes shouted from the top of Buckingham Palace that he was more than good enough to play as a batter in this side.
We would have been talking much more about this 182 if there weren’t ten double-hundreds already in ODI cricket. However, this inning by Benjamin Andrew Stokes is the stamp of approval that has now been added to his return ticket to the ODI World Cup in the most Stokes-esque way possible.
