Ferguson aims to raise anxiety levels
Ben Stokes begged to be reinstated as England’s vicecaptain. Michael Atherton reports.
Black Caps fast bowler Lockie Ferguson is eager to bring a bit of anxiety to the England batting lineup if he can finally make his overdue test debut.
The white ball tearaway has been included in New Zealand’s 15-man squad for the two tests against England, the first in Mount Maunganui starting on Thursday, and three against Australia.
It’s taken him seven years to break in and he’s hoping to grab his opportunity, well aware of the expectations around him as he adds a new dimension to an attack that has been built around swing kings Trent Boult and Tim Southee alongside short-ball specialist Neil Wagner.
‘‘That’s part of my role in the team . . . to bring a bit of anxiety potentially by bowling extra speed.’’
Lockie Ferguson
‘‘That’s part of my role in the team . . . to bring a bit of anxiety potentially by bowling extra speed,’’ he said of adding some fear factor for the touring batsmen.
‘‘England have the same thing with the Jofra Archers and the like and it does the same thing for both teams.’’
Ferguson is looking forward to bowling to what he describes as ‘‘creative’’ field placements in the test arena.
‘‘It opens you up to different tactics in how you bowl at batters and putting them under pressure and potentially making them a little bit nervous about the short ball.’’
Ferguson has proven irresistible on the back of his outstanding exploits at the World Cup where he took 21 wickets, second only to Australian Mitchell Starc.
He admits the longer form has long been his passion though he successfully adapted to make the oneday and Twenty20 New Zealand teams. Now he’s ready for the necessary adjustments for a crack at the five-day scene.
There’s nothing like a fast bowler in full flight and this looks to be Ferguson’s time.
‘‘I think international cricket has had quite an awesome year with fast bowlers and the World Cup,’’ Ferguson said. ‘‘Early on they were talking about spinners being the
real threat and it was exciting for me to be part of the fast bowling fraternity and to see the fast bowlers at the top of that [wicket-taking] list. I don’t think it changes to test cricket . . . fast bowlers are going to create a threat and cause problems for batters just from pure pace.
‘‘But at the same time you have to be accurate. Personally, that’s
one thing I’ve worked on for a long time – bowling quick but making sure I’m putting it where I want to put it.
‘‘It’s definitely going to be a new challenge. Like all the formats, it took a step up from domestic level. Fortunately I’ve played quite a lot of these [England] players before, so it’s not completely new. But red ball
is a whole different beast. It’s the longer form both mentally and physically so it’s going to be a challenge for sure.’’
He’s up for that and has been working hard with his Auckland bowling mentor, former Black Caps allrounder Andre Adams.
‘‘I understand what it takes to be a fast bowler at that level. You can’t
always go 100 per cent like you potentially can at one-day and T20. You have to pick and choose when to bowl quick spells and that’s part of the learning process that I’ve been working to for a few years now.’’
He has worked hard to improve his fitness to be ready for this opportunity and the increased pressures
on the body.
The modest 28-year-old paid tribute to the camaraderie in the Black Caps bowling unit and felt his recent international success was often a result of the pressure being applied by the experienced bowlers operating at other end.
‘‘We’ve got three internationally recognised world class bowlers who
have been doing an exceptional job and put us to No 2 on the test rankings [behind India, with England at No 3]. That’s awesome and it’s great to be around those guys learning.
‘‘It’s going to be a tough team to break into but there’s obviously a lot of test cricket coming up.’’
After a summer that catapulted him to superstar status, Ben Stokes has revealed that the England captaincy would be impossible to turn down were it ever offered to him.
While emphasising that it is not an aspiration at present, and that Joe Root is the best man for the job, Stokes admitted that he could never refuse the opportunity, especially having lobbied Tom Harrison directly for the return of the vice-captaincy before the Ashes.
In his new book charting a remarkable
season, On Fire: My Story of England’s
Summer to Remember, released yesterday, Stokes will reveal that he sent Harrison, the chief executive of the ECB, a text message begging for the return of the vice-captaincy, which had been taken away from him after an altercation outside a nightclub in Bristol 18 months earlier. Harrison subsequently signed off the request, allowing Stokes to return to a position of responsibility in time for the opening Ashes test at Edgbaston.
In a subsequent interview with The
Times, Stokes revealed his uncertainty about how best to frame this request, about how much the vice-captaincy meant to him and about whether he could ever step up from being Root’s No 2, given his workload as the team’s principal allrounder, and given the way the captaincy weighed on England’s other iconic allrounders of the modern age, Ian Botham and Andrew Flintoff.
Stokes’ loyalty to Root, with whom he will reunite for the New Zealand tests beginning next week and with whom he has a close relationship off the field, is absolute – and that is his starting point.
‘‘It [the England captaincy] is not an aspiration for me, currently,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s not something that I could ever say no to and it would be a great honour to be asked to do it, but right now it’s not an aspiration. Joe Root is England captain and there is no-one else better in the country to do the job.
‘‘You could never say no to it, though; could never say no to being asked. I hope it doesn’t happen and I hope Joe doesn’t lose it. He came under scrutiny last summer and it was a very tough summer for him. With the World Cup and the Ashes coming so soon after it, the weight on his shoulders was huge. I’ve got a very close relationship with Joe on and off the field and I could see the strain he was under.’’
Stokes felt some anxiety of his own, as he sat in his garage between the World Cup final and the start of the Ashes, mulling over whether to ask Harrison directly for the return of the vicecaptaincy,
an unusual move for any player, no matter their stature.
‘‘I thought long and hard about it and thought about many different ways to write it,’’ Stokes said. ‘‘It’s not really me to do something like that, but, in the end, I just thought I might as well do it. Considering he’s the CEO, and I’m just a player, we have a great relationship and I just felt so strongly about it and wanted it back.
‘‘When I got appointed [to the vicecaptaincy] initially, it was such a big thing for me. It was such a proud moment in my career.
‘‘Obviously, it was disappointing when it got taken off me, for obvious reasons, but the closer it came to the Ashes, I began to think about it more and more. I wondered whether it was the right thing to do and what others would think about it. In the end, I just went with it. I just sent him a text message. I was sitting in the garage, I think, when I sent it.’’
While he understood why the ECB had demoted him, he thought the time was right to return to a position of responsibility.
‘‘It got to a point where I had been back in the team for a long while, playing across formats. I felt like if ever there was a time to put yourself out there and ask for it back just before an Ashes series, then the time was now.’’
As well as his exploits on the pitch, the book reveals just how central Stokes was, as a senior player, to many of the decisions and discussions off it that shaped England’s summer. There was, for example, the decision to omit Alex Hales with which he, and other senior players, agreed strongly.
Then there was the critical team meeting before the do-or-die match against India at Edgbaston in the World Cup, when David Young, the team psychologist, asked Stokes to lead a discussion by opening up about the vulnerabilities and fears that he and others were feeling about exiting the tournament early.
Would people be surprised to hear him admit to vulnerabilities? ‘‘It’s fine to feel vulnerable,’’ Stokes said.
‘‘It’s nothing to be ashamed of. It’s not a weakness to talk about being vulnerable or nervous. It helps to know everyone else is feeling like that too. I knew everyone in the room was feeling that way. That’s human nature.’’
After missing the T20s in New Zealand, his international winter gets under way next week with the opening test in Mount Maunganui, where once again he will step out as Root’s vice-captain.
Were it necessary, would leadership be too much of a burden – as it was for Botham and Flintoff?
‘‘You can’t really answer that until you’re exposed to it,’’ he said.
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‘‘It [the England captaincy] is not an aspiration for me, currently. It’s not something that I could ever say no to and it would be a great honour to be asked to do it, but right now it’s not an aspiration.
Ben Stokes