Stokes: I still have so much more to give

THESE days Ben Stokes’ presence is fundamental to England’s hopes of finally getting to the top in one-day cricket — you only need to watch his century yesterday to see that — yet it is not so long ago he saw his struggles to contribute as thankless as running the wrong way up an escalator.

In global terms, Stokes’ star has never been higher.

He began the week by being named the Indian Premier League’s most valuable player of 2017.

In national terms he has become indispensable, to the extent that mild panic ripples through the English game with every twinge or niggle, as it did on Wednesday at Headingley when he aggravated an injury to his left knee. As head coach Trevor Bayliss has said: ‘He is the heart and soul of the team.’

Although Stokes is an essential component as England search for their first global 50-over crown when the Champions Trophy begins next week, he readily admits he is yet to master the white-ball game as he has Test cricket. And a man who rarely gives credence to statistics confesses his numbers don’t add up.

While he averages 34 with bat and ball in Tests, there is greater disparity in his one-day international figures. Although there are extenuating circumstances — such as being pinballed around the order and being carded as low as eight prior to his omission for the 2015 World Cup — a batting average which was as skinny as 15.66 still hovers under 30, and his 46 wickets have cost nearly 40 runs apiece.

‘I separate my ODI career so far into two parts — the first half ended in Sri Lanka in December 2014,’ he said. ‘That was a period in which I was stepping backwards as a one-day player. It was like I was running up an escalator on its way down.

‘I’ve been in the team consistently over the last two years and those numbers have gone up since I was given more responsibility. I have been a lot more consistent and played a bigger role. But I still average in the 20s with the stick and that’s not great. I don’t think that’s good enough for me.

‘I still need to improve. I have got to 50 with five overs left and got out on more than one occasion. That’s the bit I want to get better at: to make 80s, 90s and possibly 100s.

‘I don’t complicate Test cricket as I’ve done with done white ball at times. The frustrating thing is when I get good runs in a Test match, it is at a good run rate. My strike rate is usually over 100. Yet I have struggled to get the right tempo in one-dayers.

‘I get to a certain point in my innings and get out trying to hit too hard when I just don’t need to.’

In Wednesday’s ODI against South Africa, he fell to his old habit of picking out the solitary boundary fielder, before the injury scare limited his chance to use any bowling knowledge gleaned from the IPL. He credits South African Eric Simons, his Rising Pune bowling coach in India, for polishing skills he said are transferable from T20 to ODIs, most significantly ‘pace-off’ deliveries with no discernible change in his action.

‘The IPL makes me feel like my bowling has gone to another level. I now see that 50 overs is just a longer version of Twenty20 cricket. The skills are exactly the same, you just have to do them for a longer period of time,’ he said.