BRILLIANT STOKES IS MAN MOST FEARED IN THE ASHES CLASHES
CAPTAIN Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft were banned for a year for ball-tampering during their heavy third Test defeat in South Africa. TV cameras caught Bancroft using sandpaper on the ball, then hiding it in his underwear during the third day’s play. It ended in tears. WHEN Steve Smith and Ben Stokes first shared a dressing room together things couldn’t have gone much better.
As Rising Pune Supergiant team-mates they took the 2017 Indian Premier League by storm, scoring runs, taking wickets, holding catches and getting all the way to the final. Smith, as captain, came within one run of beating the Mumbai Indians and lifting the trophy, while Stokes had already returned to the UK to play for England but had done enough to be named Player of the Tournament.
Two years on and they are team-mates again at the Rajasthan Royals, but they have both been through hell and high water in the intervening period.
Both men have had enforced breaks from the game for differing reasons, but with 2019 set to be a bumper year for them and the game, Smith revealed just what he thinks of his team-mate who will soon become his World Cup and Ashes foe.
“He’s a great guy to have on your side,” said Smith. “He has amazing energy – he does everything at 100 miles an hour – and his fitness is fantastic. He’s always in the game, whether with the bat, the ball or in the field. “And he’s the sort of guy who can lift a dressing room.
“I’d heard good things about Ben Stokes from county cricket when playing for Worcestershire in 2010, but I hadn’t seen him play before his debut Test in Adelaide. That innings in Perth (his first test hundred, above) was brilliant. It was a quick wicket and Mitchell Johnson was bowling seriously fast.
“There were big cracks in the surface but nothing flustered him. He played really well.”
And it is the memory of that performance in 2013 that made his omission in 2017 so hard for some fans to take as England lost the Ashes 4-0 to a Smith-inspired Aussie team.
All things being equal both men should be ready to go toe-to-toe for the urn once more this summer in a fascinating sub-plot to an already captivating contest.
Not forgetting that in another part of India, David Warner and Jonny Bairstow are sharing hugs and century stands for the Sunrisers Hyderabad like they are going out of fashion.
Smith v Stokes is just one change he will have to deal with come the summer, but there could also be Smith v Jos Buttler and Smith v Jofra Archer, with all four pretty in pink for the Royals.
The promise from everyone out here in Jaipur is that the only thing on their minds is the next game and doing well in the IPL.
But you can be sure that the knowledge and the time spent together here, will be used to its full extent this summer.
As Stokes said in a recent Daily Mirror interview: “I think having England players at different franchises in the IPL helps.
“Guys will be able to come back with certain information on players that we won’t know because they’ve spent time with them.”
Indeed.