Stokes — raw, real and relentless

The Hindu

2 days ago

The universe sometimes conspires — almost magically — to bless a few individuals with the power not only to write their scripts, but to live them out on the grandest stages of life.
Act I: T20 World Cup final, Eden Gardens, Kolkata, 2016
The tension was palpable. West Indies needed 19 runs off the final over. It was advantage England, as things stood.
Marlon Samuels — calm, ice-cool and unbeaten on 85 — was stranded at the non-striker's end.
The moment was ripe — not for Samuels, not for West Indies — but for a young 24-year-old Englishman full of fire and fight. Ben Stokes had the ball. History was in the making.
But in his, and England's, way stood a player and a performance immortalised by Ian Bishop's iconic scream: 'Carrrrrlos Brathwaite! Carrrrrlos Brathwaite — remember the name!'
Four sixes on the trot, each sailing into the night sky and then swallowed by the crowd, stunned Stokes and his teammates into shock. Brathwaite had pulled off the unthinkable and handed the Windies a cherished world title.
Stokes crumbled; his face sank into the palm of his hands. He dropped to the floor, hollowed out by heartbreak. As one name and performance entered the annals of history, another – Stokes – was buried under the weight of an opportunity gone tragically wrong. A man, who could have been a national hero, was made the villain.
'I said to myself, 'I've lost the World Cup.' I couldn't believe it. I didn't know what to do. It took me so long to get back on my feet. I didn't want to get back up. It was like the whole world had come down on me,' Stokes, always one to candidly dissect emotions, would later admit.
'There weren't any good things going through my mind. It was just complete devastation. After the first six, I thought, 'Oh God,' but I was backing myself. I had been in that type of situation for four weeks in all my training, so it was not a case of holding anything back and thinking, 'I hope I get this one in' because I knew I could do it.'
But destiny is often cruel.
'I haven't watched it back yet because I don't want to bring myself to do that at this stage,' he said later. 'I don't know how much I missed it, but as a bowler, you have a feeling as soon as you let go whether or not you've got the yorker right — and it felt like I had.
'Some days they go well. Some days they don't. That was a horrible day, but I won't be shying away from it. You almost want it to happen… because if you nail it, everyone forgets the final.'
But no one forgot. Not then. Not even now. After the gutting group-stage exit in the 2015 ODI World Cup, the T20 final loss was akin to rubbing salt on one's raw wounds. It was rock bottom, sure, but as it turns out, it was not the end.
Act II: Rock Bottom to Rock Star
'You've got to lose to know how to win…' — Aerosmith famously crooned in their 1973 classic 'Dream On'.
Stokes held that loss at the Eden close to his heart. The itch of that adamant scar dragged him back to the drawing board. Only this time, it wasn't just blind hard work; he trained smarter. It dawned on him that technique wasn't the only area of work: far more important were temperament and mindset.
Stokes needed to find a way to give direction to the fire that burned within. He needed to find purpose. And where better to find that than at home!
His father, Gerard, was a tough, no-nonsense rugby player-turned-coach. His mother, Deborah, who introduced him to cricket as a young boy, worked as a counsellor for victims of violent crime.
Growing up, young Benjamin excelled at both sports.
'In a room full of people, you'd spot a Stokes straight away,' the all-rounder once said.
'The sense of humour is the same. We take the mickey out of each other constantly. My brother's a grouch around people — he just grunts. That competitiveness, the frustration, the inside build-up of anger — that's from my old man. I've definitely got that in me,' the Christchurch-born English all-rounder said.
Gerard wasn't one for excuses. For years, he told his son he'd lost a finger to a crocodile. The truth, when it came out, was equally striking: 'He kept dislocating the same finger,' Stokes recalled. 'The doctor said he needed surgery. But Dad couldn't afford to miss games — he had bills to pay. So he just got it cut off.'
That missing finger would eventually be his son's iconic celebration. But it was in that kind of environment — relentless, raw, real — that Ben Stokes was shaped.
'If I didn't do well, I'd beat myself up,' he remembered. 'Especially when I was younger. I'd just get angry. I'm not someone who hates people for beating me. But I. Just. Don't. Like. Losing'.
But somewhere along the way, something shifted. From pain came a hard-earned truth: stop chasing moments…become them.
While others shrank in the wake of chaos, Stokes always found himself drawn to it.
Take the 2019 ODI World Cup, for example. Once again, a final – this time at Lord's – and a final over, except this time he was the one batting.
Fifteen runs were needed for a famous win against New Zealand. History stared him down once more, but this time, Stokes didn't blink.
Stokes would drop to his knees once more, but this time after willing his team across the finish line, in a Super Over no less.
He took the weight of a nation and turned it into poetry.
Act III: Immortality in Leeds
If Lord's was redemption, Headingley was a step above. With the Ashes slipping away, England — chasing 359 — collapsed to 286 for nine. With 73 runs still needed and just one wicket in hand against an Australian attack baying for blood, it seemed foolish to hope.
Alone but determined, Stokes motored on. He reverse-swept Nathan Lyon into the stands and switch-hit Pat Cummins for maximums. He smashed boundaries, all with tailender Jack Leach as his shadow.
For all his heroics, Stokes was but human. When he trudged unwillingly to the non-striker's end, he was rendered unable to watch Leach's desperate attempts to survive.
The pair kept the game alive. Stokes was handed the relief of a missed run out and an erroneous not out decision on an LBW appeal (Australia couldn't turn to DRS, having exhausted its reviews). Two runs were needed for a largely unlikely English win when Cummins resumed with the ball.
Leach blocked before running a single and bringing Stokes back on strike. He wasted no time, creaming a length delivery through covers to seal a miraculous win.
Arms spread wide, Stokes – who finished with an unbeaten 135 – roared. Headingley erupted in unison. The famous Western Terrace stands went into a frenzy.
'It was beyond greatness,' said former England captain Nasser Hussain. 'It was something else. Something beyond cricket.'
359 was chased, the Ashes remained alive, and the game got a masterclass on the power of belief.
Final act: Leading from the front
In 2022, when Stokes was handed the reins of the England Test team, the side was adrift. One win in 17 outings didn't inspire any confidence. Spirits were low. The team's brand of cricket was unclear. England had lost its soul.
Early on in his partnership with coach Brendon McCullum, it was evident the duo were cut from the same cloth: bold, unafraid, instinctive.
Together, they didn't just rebuild a team; they redefined it. They exorcised passivity from England's character. No more playing for the draw. No more waiting for the game to come to them. Stokes and McCullum lit a fire and gave it a new name: Bazball.
Its evangelists were keen to underline that this style of cricket was not about reckless bravado, but about freedom. And at the heart of it was a liberated Stokes.
The 2023 series had a not-so-glamorous 2-2 score on paper. But those who watched every ball know that this series housed some of the most riveting contests the red ball game has ever seen. At Lord's, when tensions flared after the controversial stumping of Jonny Bairstow, it was Stokes who walked the tightrope between rage and grace. His counter-attacking 155 nearly pulled off the impossible.
Belief is a Ben Stokes staple. The most recent proof of concept coming from England's recent triumph over India at Lord's in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy.
With India matching England blow for blow with bat and ball, Stokes effected a game-changing run out of Rishabh Pant in India's first innings — an athletic pinpoint throw after bowling five overs of short-pitched darters under intense heat.
Not only was a threatening partnership broken, but that run out galvanised the crowd to get behind the home boys.
Stokes, the bowler, has been exceptional all through this series, but more so at Lord's. He struck twice in the first innings, however, it was his performance later in the match that defined the contest.
He bowled himself for 24 overs on the trot, at speeds exceeding 137 kmph, removing K.L. Rahul, Jasprit Bumrah, and nightwatchman Akash Deep in a pivotal session on the penultimate day. His sustained 9.2-over burst on the final morning laid the foundation for England's eventual victory.
As a leader, his composure and tactical might took centrestage whenever tempers ran high. Sharp catching positions, attacking bowling changes and faith in their short-ball strategy to dismantle the lower order paid rich dividends.
He managed 44 and 33 in testing conditions and against menacing opponents like Bumrah, anchoring England's lower-order resistance. The home side won by a narrow 22 runs, proving his shifts invaluable in the end.
That triumph gave England 2-1 lead in the series, reaffirming Stokes' own status as the pulse of the red-ball setup.
Bazball is an easy concept to bash because of its volatility. But its champions remain unfazed. What Stokes and McCullum have built is more than a team. It's a culture. They've made Test cricket thrilling again. Not because they win every time, but because they aren't afraid to lose. And that, oddly, is what makes them win more.
Stokes' redemption is more about persistence than perfection. His ascendancy was anything but smooth — in fact, the first chapter of his career had more infamy than glory. The 2016 T20 World Cup final cast a long, painful shadow.
The 2017 nightclub brawl in Bristol led to an arrest, a trial, and a suspension. He lost the England vice-captaincy and missed the 2017-18 Ashes.
It takes something special to resist spiralling and emerge transformed in spirit. Stokes didn't just have to reclaim his place in the team — he had to earn back the trust of a dressing room, and a nation. Turns out, he's done that and in some style. Some players create history. But once in a generation, one becomes it.
Benjamin Andrew Stokes — Remember the Name!