England v West Indies Old hands must help Stokes fire
CRICKET
BEN STOKES natural leader.
But he will need help from other senior players to be a successful England captain.
That’s the view of Paddy Upton, who coached Stokes at the Rajasthan Royals in last year’s Indian Premier League.
The South African admits that he was hugely impressed with the way Stokes interacted with the younger members of the Royals’ squad.
As Stokes’ prepares for his debut as England skipper – in what’s likely to be a one-off cameo in Joe Root’s absence – Upton is backing his man to make a success of the job.
“He is probably the best I’ve ever seen – absolutely unbelievable – when it comes to helping out the young guys,” said Upton.
“When it came to practices, he was the person who led the energy, led the enthusiasm – he pulled people along with him.
“I was gobsmacked at how amazing he was in that
is a regard.
What is it in his make-up that gets him to do stuff like that?
It’s quite clear that he’s just really down to earth.
“He’s very humble, he comes from a humble background.
“He really does carry those family values, those mates’ values with him. He has that family ethic.”
Bizarre
Stokes will need all those skills when he leads England out for the first Test of a bizarre summer against the West Indies at Hampshire’s Ageas Bowl this week.
Root will be absent for the birth of his second child – handing Stokes his first experience of captaincy since he led a Durham age-group side 12 years ago.
“What’s important isn’t so much who is the captain, it’s who is in the leadership team,” added Upton. “When you have that leadership team then you have the bases covered.
“There are some really experienced guys in this England side and that’s going to be important.
“On the field he will have one or two lieutenants that will be there to help him out.
“He’ll be fine as a caretaker.”
As he has proved time and again in the field – Stokes is a safe pair of hands.