He’s a brilliant team-mate, but is he mentally ready for this?

The guy I know is very humble. But I don’t know Ben Stokes of an evening. The one with the short fuse who needs to have a look at himself. This is not just a one-off. As for the cricket side of things, it will be a huge weight off his mind. I am amazed how well he performed with this hanging over him. In a post-match interview with Sky’s Ian Ward at the end of the first Test match at Edgbaston, he was virtually speechless. Most people put it down to the emotion, and what playing in a Test match takes out of you, but to me it was a realisation of what lay ahead in Bristol. As for selection this week, the thing that Joe Root and Trevor Bayliss must work out is how much this will have taken out of him and whether he is mentally fit to go into a Test match. I am sure that’s all Ben wants to do right now.