By his own admission, Ben Stokes was not himself on England’s tour of Pakistan.
The England captain rushed himself back from a serious hamstring injury soon after he returned to full fitness from a major knee problem. But he was not fit to bowl in the first Test, so was left out to retain the five-bowler balance of the side required in gruelling conditions. That will have hurt.
When he returned in the second and third Tests he looked frazzled by the physical effort he had put in to get back on the field. He endured a series of slapstick dismissals (see below) as his batting retained scars of the tour of India earlier in the year, when he was exposed against spin. Meanwhile, he barely bowled and his captaincy lacked his usual spark. He even lost his cool with his players for the first time on the field. A 1-0 lead became a 2-1 defeat to a team England should beat.
Off the field, this has not been a straightforward few months for Stokes. Just before his injury, he lost a mentor in Graham Thorpe. Along with Joe Root, he was a pallbearer at Thorpe’s funeral in September.
It later emerged that at the end of the second Test in Pakistan, Stokes had learnt that his family home had been robbed while his wife and two children slept. His wife Claire implored him to stay in Pakistan, but you could not blame him for carrying a clouded mind. Barely any of Stokes’s team-mates knew what was going on.
It is little surprise that Stokes looks more at home in Christchurch. He was born in the city, and his mother and brother have returned to live there from Cumbria so, having attended to matters at home (there has been an arrest in connection with the burglary) he travelled out a week earlier to spend time with them. They have attended every day of the Test. As lovely as staying in a lavish golf resort in Pakistan is, Stokes is a free spirit who does not like to be confined to barracks. England’s players have been travelling through Christchurch to Hagley Oval on e-scooters each day, a healthy dose of normal life around an abnormal job.
Before this series, he gave a cathartic press conference, owning up the errors of Pakistan and turning the page. All this is just what Stokes needed, and it is surely no coincidence that he looks himself again, playing on instinct. He has had a good game as captain, showing faith in Shoaib Bashir’s spin in the first innings, and being rewarded with four wickets, and enjoying success with his favoured short-ball tactic, too. In Brydon Carse, he has found the perfect bowler to execute it.
There is still ring-rust in Stokes’s bowling – only match practice will sort that out – but his first innings 80 was just the innings he needed. This was not Stokes at his most electric, but it was a knock of substance and a very welcome return to form after his subcontinental travails of 2024.
When he came to the crease, England were in a strong position, but still 126 behind. They needed another partnership, but he played his part in three. He was always happy to defer to his partner. In a stand of 159 with Harry Brook, he contributed 56. He offered 14 (from 17 balls) to the eighth-wicket 63 with Gus Atkinson and 10 (from 15) to the ninth-wicket 40 with Carse. Either side of lunch, he simply got the lower order hitters – it would be wrong to call them tail-enders – back on strike, because they looked in such prime touch. England scored 141 runs in a terrific morning session, but just 40 of them were Stokes’s. He wisely provided the steadying hand to ensure a decisive lead.
Amid New Zealand’s remarkable bout of butter-fingers, Stokes benefitted once, dropped badly at cover on the second evening. And while he was always prepared to take on the short ball, which has got up on a good pitch, and played some handsome cover drives, a solid defence and sound leave were the bedrock of his innings, like so many of his best knocks, even if the more attacking ones stick in the memory.
There is much uncertainty around England’s best batting order, with Jamie Smith – who is on paternity leave – perhaps too good to stay at No 7 for long and Ollie Pope looking so much more comfortable in the middle order than at first drop. This was a reminder that Stokes has the game to plug any hole England want or need him to: the technique to bat No 3, the power and nous to man the tail from No 7, or the balance to be the lynchpin at No 6. The latter spot will be his preference, because he will want to bowl plenty and remain fresh to captain. Fair enough. Next year, though, India and Australia would surely hate to see Stokes walking out at No 3, digging in or hitting out as the situation demands.
The good news for Stokes and England is he has found some form playing within himself. If England are to succeed in 2025, they need him at his best as a batsman and a leader. With his highest score since the middle of last year’s Ashes, this was a huge step in the right direction.
