For 14 July will be branded into his conscience – the day in 2019 he signed his name into British sporting legend. As Stokes won the World Cup for England at Lord’s, he had the clarity of mind to advise a teenage Jofra Archer, set to deliver the winning super over, just two months into life as an international cricket player.
“Today does not define you,” Stokes once famously declared. Archer gave it meaning. When they were again on the same turf six years to the day on Monday for the third Test against India to be won, the pace bowler was unaware of what the day meant.
“I told him this morning, ‘you know what today is, don’t you?’,” said Stokes. Archer, however, believed it was the anniversary of an iconic one-dayer at Lord’s in 2002, an India victory led by Sourav Ganguly, waving his shirt over his head.
“He thought that was the World Cup final. He thought that was six years today,” Stokes added. “I was like, ‘No, that World Cup we won?’ He was like, ‘Oh, that one. ‘ He’s an absolute beauty, that boy.”
Archer is excusable. Four years out of Test cricket, dates presumably become unimportant. If the tension- wracked 22-run loss to India is most recalled as the game when Archer returned in an electrifying, victory-filled manner, those who witnessed it will remember it was stage-managed by Stokes.
The England skipper couldn’t have done more. The sweat that beaded on his arms and wetted his shirt as he bowled in the blistering heat of Saturday. The, erm, anatomy that he put in jeopardy when Mohammed Siraj hit him on Sunday. The blood that trickled through his left sock after another Herculean stint with the ball in Monday’s final.
“I do not want to see a couple of them for a while,” stated Stokes as he was handed his bowling boots after completing his media commitments. On the first night, when Stokes limped about with what seemed like a groin issue, his display was so convincing that it raised fears he may have done himself some serious damage. On Monday, there were fears he would never cease bowling.
These marathon spells, once the Stokes’ hallmark, were to be a thing of the past following the surgical repair of both his left knee and hamstring. On the third night, Brendon McCullum, perhaps the only man on earth that Stokes would not challenge, sent Tim Southee to instruct the captain to halt bowling after a seven-over stint. Southee, his wide smile doing nothing to conceal his nerves, complied. Stokes did too.
On Monday, McCullum would have had to march onto the field to prise the ball from Stokes’ hand. A first spell of 9.2 overs, featuring the wicket of the immovable KL Rahul. A second spell of 10 overs, just as England were getting twitchy and India’s number 10, Jasprit Bumrah, was blocking like Geoffrey Boycott. Stokes bounced him out.
“Today was going to be my choice of when I ceased bowling,” Stokes explained. “I’m fairly knackered. Bowling to try and win a Test match for your country on day five, if that doesn’t motivate you, I don’t know what does.”
Stokes’ worth as a cricketer can never be accounted for by statistics, though his statistics are Hyperbola-esque. Only two other gentlemen have achieved the Test double of 6,000 runs and 200 wickets, genuine legends in Jacques Kallis and Garfield Sobers.
Stokes is seen better in the moments he creates. There were more than the norm at Lord’s. The deciding direct-hit run out of Rishabh Pant during India’s first innings, colliding with Akash Deep with the last ball of the fourth day, the same day on which he created a photographer’s dream of being prostrate on the pitch following the whack on the unmentionables.
On day five, it was turning his body into an X to beg for lbw against Rahul, then willing subfielder Sam Cook to hold the catch as Bumrah’s miscue hung there. When Shoaib Bashir dismissed the last man, Siraj and ran away in the direction of St John’s Wood underground station, Stokes was too tired to join the rest of the England team in chasing after him.
There is the issue over his batting, still finding itself in a stodgy quest for rhythm, particularly against spin. Scores of 44 and 33 were significant, but the second one was fascinating for what it lacked, as opposed to what it contained.
With England struggling to extend their advantage in the second innings, wickets were tumbling on a tricky surface. There was hope for Stokes to switch on, hit the mode that makes the fielders turn spectators and spectators turn fielders. It never happened. The switch is less easy to find today, like searching around the wall when the lights are off.
Stokes’ most recent Test century was at Lord’s, two summers ago, on a day that the switch certainly was turned on after Alex Carey’s contentious stumping of Jonny Bairstow during the second Ashes Test.
On that day, England employed the needle between them and the Australians to battle back from 2-0 down and tie the series. Same venue, same needle, this time between England and India, was fanned on Saturday night and smouldered over the next two days. England were a better side with fire in their bellies.
