England have a Ben Stokes problem – but there is a radical solution

Independent

18 hours ago

When do you break the news to your elderly parent that they shouldn't drive anymore?
They've guided you. Instilled the values with which you lead your life and held your hand through all the highs and lows of the years gone by. But they have also started bumping into things quite regularly. Last week they parked on a mini-roundabout.
Since Ben Stokes ' last Test hundred over two years ago, he has averaged 28 with the bat. A stretch of 19 Test matches and 33 innings. In his last eight Tests he has a solitary half-century. Since the start of 2024, he has averaged 18 against spin. Even in the three matches he played for Durham during last season, he averaged 20.4. However you cut it, dad keeps indicating left when he wants to turn right.
Stokes, to a degree, has earned the right both through force of personality and his track record to bat where and when he wants in his England team. The numbers have never told the full story with England's talisman. An all-rounder with an average in the mid-30s with both bat and ball doesn't speak to a player who will go down in history as one of the best ever – but that is exactly what he already is.
However, the idea that Stokes turns up when it matters – the 2019 World Cup final, Headingley, the 2022 T20 World Cup Final – is wearing thin.
It is now two years since we've seen him. And if England judge themselves primarily across the high-profile Test series against India and Australia – the moments which, as the theory goes, gets Stokes blood going and brings out his best – well, in the past 18 months England have played seven matches against India in which Stokes has averaged 20.35. England need Stokes. And they need him now.
At Edgbaston this week, Mohammed Siraj bowled a phenomenal delivery which Stokes edged behind for the first golden duck of his Test career. In isolation, there was no shame in it. There was nothing Stokes could have done. But in context, it spoke to Stokes the passenger. Helpless to his surroundings.
So what are the solutions? Stokes is still integral to this team. There isn't a world where he is not lining up for the Ashes and nor should there be.
One issue Stokes may need to combat is a relative lack of cricket. Stokes is unusual in the modern game in that he is, in effect, a Test cricket specialist. He has retired from ODI and T20I cricket. He rarely plays for Durham and has scaled back his franchise commitments in order to place all his focus on England.
As a result he simply hasn't batted as much as his colleagues in England's top six. In international cricket alone, Stokes has faced 1,000 fewer deliveries than all of Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Harry Brook across the last two years. All of whom also participate in domestic leagues as well where they will be hitting even more balls.
Stokes has never been one to source out extra cricket. He skips out on warm-up matches, not feeling the personal benefit of them and this has never been an issue before. In the first five months of this year, he didn't play a single match as he returned from injury, meaning the Zimbabwe Test in May was his first competitive cricket since December. Subsequently, there was a plan for him to participate in the England Lions fixtures against India A that occurred before the Test series against India proper started, but he decided against it.
'I came out of the Zimbabwe Test feeling good and I didn't think it was necessary,' Stokes said in the build-up to this series. 'We play a lot of cricket now and my preparation has definitely changed in what I think I need.'
The thing is. Stokes doesn't play a lot of cricket. Not anymore. Even with the caveat of time spent injured, in the past two years Stokes has played 25 cricket matches. Ben Duckett has played 77.
There is not ample opportunity for Stokes to find more cricket than what is currently on offer to him. There are three Durham matches in September where, bowling workload dependent, he could play as a specialist batter. But that is it aside from the remaining three Tests this series before the Ashes. Stokes used to not need warm-up matches when he was one of the busiest cricketers on the planet. But now he isn't. Could that be one area of change?
Another option, if the runs refuse to flow, is to drop down the order. Jamie Smith, currently batting below him in the order, now averages 58.6 in Test cricket and is earmarked for a long career in England's top five. Shuffling the deck has no promises of solving all ills, however. Moving Smith for the sake of it, when he is excelling at seven, may have its own issues and currently Smith is arguably in a better place to marshall the tail than Stokes.
An even more extreme option, and one that could present itself in Australia where pitches have become incredibly seam friendly, is for Stokes to drop all the way to eight. If presented with a pitch where England feel a spinner is not necessary, they could swap Jacob Bethell in for Shoaib Bashir. A move that would allow England to pick their wunderkind, still have four seam options and have spin options in Bethell and Joe Root. It is a risk. It is unlikely. But if Stokes' poor form with the bat continues, a solution needs to be found.
Runs, however, are nature's greatest healer. The best case for England is Stokes finding some form and he continues at six for the foreseeable future. With the ball, Stokes is looking the best he has for years, and if he's able to tie that together with runs as well, then maybe dad will be able to keep driving us to school after all.