England vs India: How Ben Stokes conquered the demons in his mind to become his team's all-weather talisman
Before tea on Monday, he hurtled in for a 10-over spell. Before lunch, he had already had another long spell that had started on Sunday night. His veins burst through his bearded face, eyes sunk in as he stared at the batsmen or at spaces on the field. Whenever he felt energy was sapping from his teammates, the man who must have been absolutely battered physically would stand there, clap his hands ferociously and yell out words of encouragement. It felt he was willing to do anything for England.
And to think 12 years ago, former England coach Andy Flower had to tell him: 'You don't want to play for England. You just want to piss it up the wall with your mates, and have a good time'.
Stokes had broken the team curfew on the England Lions tour to Australia and returned at 5.30 in the morning. It seemed a real talent would be consumed by a self-destructive streak.
On a dry hot July day in London in 2013, Stokes sidled into the seats in the stands at Lord's, and sat next to psychologist Mark Bawden. He had struggled through the season, was feeling down with his performance, so much so that his captain at Durham, Paul Collingwood, had texted him, 'are you ok?'
But the boisterous tattooed-star wasn't in a mood to expose his vulnerabilities to a teammate yet. Luckily, he realised the damage he was doing to himself, and dialled a psychologist.
Bawden soon sensed that Stokes was suffering from the 'Bottle Bottle Bang' syndrome'. In normal lingo, it meant Stokes was bottling up his emotions inside him, and it kept festering inside until it explodes. In March 2014, the frustration of a poor tour of the West Indies saw Stokes punching the locker in the dressing room, breaking his hand, which forced him to miss the ICC World T20. Bottle bottle bang.
More regular meet-ups with Bawden followed and Stokes was given a routine to manage his anger: go to the dressing room and pack up your kit bag. That packing process apparently has helped Stokes in calming down a few times.
Bawden likes to classify his sporting subjects in two types: Assassins (thinkers) and Warriors (feelers). He puts Alastair Cook in the former, while Stokes falls in the 'warrior' category.
'One thing I try and do is de-myth confidence for people, who often think that confidence is having absolutely no doubt and unbreakable self-belief. In normal life, everybody experiences fear, anxiety and self-doubt,' Bawden once said. 'My job is helping people realise that confidence isn't the absence of fear or doubt, it's trust in your method.'
More bad events shadowed Stokes, though. A pub fight that threatened his career, the death of his father, and the mental-health struggle, but slowly the tide turned. He became an ODI World Cup star, a T20 World Cup champion and above all, the Test captain with Brendon McCullum as head coach.
He took a break due to mental-health issues, returned to take over the Test captaincy and even Joe Root, the former captain, would be moved to say that he has never enjoyed cricket as much as he has done under Stokes.
That trust in his own method that Bawden talked about has meant Stokes doesn't get too flustered if he ends up miscuing some of his shots. Or if the wickets don't come despite him running in to bowl for a couple of hours. He keeps at it.
Like he did all day at Lord's on a most bizarre day of Test cricket in recent memory. Jadeja refused to take a backward step. Stokes refused as well.
And so both teams were caught in a magnificent deadlock. Jadeja didn't buckle but fate finally did, as a ball that was defended dourly by Mohammed Siraj somehow rolled past the batsman, rolled over the Indian dreams, clattered into the stumps and landed the match into Stokes's laps.
There was no anger or frustration in the end, and Stokes will pack that kit bag in utter joy.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Deccan Herald
2 hours ago
- Deccan Herald
India dig deep but England prevail
A slow‑burning contest that spectacularly sprang to life towards the end of the Moving Day, reached a thrilling conclusion. India fought tooth and nail until before going down to a determined England in a game for the ages in the third Test here on Monday. Resuming the final day of an engrossingly fought third Test at Lord's on 58/4 and needing another 135 runs to take a 2‑1 lead, India's hopes rested largely on the duo of KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant. They were the last remaining specialist batting pair and two of the most experienced players in the team. England skipper Ben Stokes (3/48) and Jofra Archer (3/55), playing his first Test in four years and picked for the crunch game purely on reputation rather than readiness for the rigours of five‑day cricket, however, put England on course for a massive win after leaving India reeling at 82/7. India, though, refused to throw in the towel and staged an incredible fightback with veteran Ravindra Jadeja (61 n.o., 181b) at the forefront of it with three nail‑biting partnerships that had everyone at the Home of Cricket on the edge of their seats. Jadeja, easily the Indian team's Most Valuable Player over the last decade, first forged a 30‑run stand for the eighth wicket with Nitish Kumar Reddy that was cut short at the stroke of lunch. At that stage, it looked dead and buried for India with another 81 runs needed and just two wickets in hand. One of them was Jasprit Bumrah, who had scored four successive ducks. England smelt blood and came charging in the post‑lunch session, but Bumrah soaked it all superbly to defy the hosts with sheer grit and gumption. He dead‑batted everything England threw at him, and with every defensive shot, he drew huge cheers from the massive Indian gathering, and confidence in Jadeja also started to grow. But this Test, in fact, series, has been such that every time a team seemingly has gained the momentum, things take a u‑turn. Bumrah, having batted for 104 minutes, went for a glory shot out of nowhere off Stokes and was caught at mid‑on. India, though, didn't give up with Mohammed Siraj slugging it out with Jadeja. Siraj even took a blow to his arm but soldiered on. It looked like he and Jadeja might pull off the impossible, but Shoaib Bashir dismissed him, the ball ricocheting off his bat onto the stumps as England wheeled away in celebrations. Siraj and Jadeja sunk in despair as the Indian innings folded up at 170, suffering a 22‑run loss. Earlier, Archer, hailed by Stokes as a genius who could change games with his pace and hostility, did exactly what the skipper proclaimed on the eve of the contest. Totally amped up following the war of words the two sides had been exchanging from late Saturday evening, the 30‑year‑old bowled with fire, passion, and deadly accuracy. The right‑armer, starting the attack along with Stokes, first dismissed Pant in his second over of the day with an absolute peach, the ball just straightening a shade after pitching, that left the wicketkeeper completely befuddled.
The Hindu
3 hours ago
- The Hindu
Jadeja played as much with his heart as with his head
Lord's was hot, and seeing Ben Stokes virtually bowl himself into the ground was tiring just watching from the stands. It was a final day tempered with the heat of Stokes and treated with the ice of Ravindra Jadeja. Exhaustion is not a feeling, it is a physical state; yet at the end of the day, exhaustion was the key emotion as Mohammed Siraj sank to the ground, bowled almost unfairly by a ball trickling onto the stumps, to be forever haunted by the question: could he have kicked it away if he had reacted quickly? Joe Root who ran to console him, appeared relieved it would remain a rhetorical question. Yet, for all of Stokes's heroics and England's sense of purpose, the man who dominated the day in his understated way was Jadeja. His fourth 50 of the series must count as one of India's great innings in a lost cause. For 22 overs, Jasprit Bumrah kept him company, the batters suggesting they might get them in singles. The fast bowler would defend and then shadow play the stroke he might have played — a perfect cover drive, for instance — had the circumstances been different. There was a calmness about the pair that contrasted with the hectic activity around as bowlers ran in, fielders spread out or closed in, and the crowd raised its decibel levels. No boundaries and few runs — yet you couldn't take your eyes away. Test cricket was demonstrating it doesn't need the artificiality of bang-bang cricket, that spectators can gasp and cheer at a defensive stroke, and when apparently nothing is happening, everything is. Sitting on the edge of the seat through five hours can be a rewarding if painful experience. Jadeja turns 37 this year, and despite his record, he was never in the frame for captaincy, and few cared for his cricketing opinions. He came, he saw, he did his job while the focus remained on the more glamorous. Yet, as a left-arm spinner he has more wickets at a lower average and better strike rate than Bishan Bedi; as a left handed batter a better strike rate than Sourav Ganguly, and as an all rounder a better batting average and both average and strike rate than Kapil Dev. Jadeja wouldn't automatically replace any of these players in an Indian team, but however misleading statistics might be, you have to acknowledge them. He has also been one of India's finest fielders, bearing comparison with Mohammed Azharuddin. Unselfish At Lord's he managed India's tail with all the assurance of a V.V.S. Laxman, unselfishly and without ego. At one point, it was England who looked ragged. Stokes, who bowled 20 overs on the day, was so tired he occasionally forgot he was captain and the fielders seemed uncertain where to go. Too tired even to wave his arms to move them, Stokes merely looked around and hoped for the best. There were eight men on the fence with only two wickets remaining, at times there was no slip. Jadeja, the support act to leading batters, was now the main feature as the wickets fell. At 112 for eight at lunch, it looked done. Yet, Jadeja kept the hopes of a nation alive, with an innings of rare intelligence and courage. Few Indian batters could be accused of throwing it away; none did so on the final day. Rahul had shown in his stint how stout defence might win the day, there was enough time. Many struggled. Joe Root, the best of them, made a century and a forty, but played and missed too many times and seemed out of sorts, finally getting bowled sweeping. Rahul's century in the first innings was more fluent, but it was left to India's No. 7 to play the innings of the match. Of the many might-have-beens is the question of extras. India conceded 63 in the match, 32 of them in England's second innings 192. They lost by 22 runs. Go figure, as Americans might say. In the final analysis, cricket is an individual sport. There is the bowler and there is the batter. Stokes's belief as bowler negated Jadeja's spirit as batter; everything else was secondary. England can be proud. So can India.
Indian Express
9 hours ago
- Indian Express
‘It is wise to stick to the attitude that works for you': Mohammad Kaif says Shubman Gill's fight with Zak Crawley charged up England at Lord's
Former India player Mohammad Kaif said that the confrontation between Shubman Gill and Zak Crawley at the end of Day 3's play at Lord's charged up an England team which had copped a lot of flak after the Edgbaston defeat. He said that England used that bust-up as fuel to motivate themselves and defeat India to go 2-1 up in the 5-match series on Monday. 'Shubman Gill's fight with Zak Crawley charged England. After Edgbaston, there were questions about their batting, bowling and captaincy. But that incident fired up Stokes and he bowled an inspiring spells. It is wise to stick to the attitude that works for you. Gill will learn this the hard way,' Kaif posted on X. On Saturday, the fiery exchange in the final over had a lot of dramatic visuals, with India's captain Gill in the thick of it. Annoyed by Crawley's time-wasting tactics that ensured India just got in one over as opposed to two that they would have hoped, Gill ran from the slips, hurled verbal abuses at Crawley and Ben Duckett, pointed fingers, and mock-clapped at Crawley. The England openers also stood their ground, and gave it all back. Shubman Gill's fight with Zak Crawley charged England. After Edgbaston, there were questions about their batting, bowling and captaincy. But that incident fired up Stokes and he bowled an inspiring spells. It is wise to stick to the attitude that works for you. Gill will learn… — Mohammad Kaif (@MohammadKaif) July 15, 2025 The tensions would also boil over to the next day as Mohammed Siraj sent back Duckett on Day 4. Siraj proceeded to roar right in Duckett's face, his eyes bulging out of their sockets and veins popping. There was even a light shoulder contact. Duckett didn't seem to really look at the bowler at any point while Siraj did the opposite for him. The Indian pacer even got a little talking-to from the umpires after the whole exercise. The tensions continued into the start of the fifth day with most of the animosity concentrated in the early exchanges, in which Jofra Archer dismissed Rishabh Pant and Washington Sundar in a devastating early spell. Archer had donned the role of the pantomime villain in that period. He made sure to give send-offs to both the players that he dismissed. Even after he was taken off the attack, Archer remained in the batsmen's faces, having some words with Nitish Kumar Reddy, notably. Brook could also be heard telling Reddy from the slips that he is no longer playing in the IPL. Reddy also had a few words with Stokes but arguably the biggest flare-up was between Brydon Carse and Ravindra Jadeja about four overs before Lunch. Jadeja ran right into Carse while running the first of the two runs the batters ran off the last ball of that over. Stokes came in between to break the two players up. Both players seemed to be telling each other that they didn't do it on purpose and to be fair to them, they did look like they were blissfully unaware of each other before colliding in the replay of the incident. England won the Test by 22 runs but that was only after they dealt with 50 overs and one delivery of resistance from India's last three wickets, anchored by Jadeja who stayed unbeaten on 61 off 181 balls.
