We’re about to discover if Stokes is truly superhuman
THE time is rapidly approaching when england will find out whether the near superhuman powers of Ben Stokes have extended to him recovering from the injury that casts a shadow over the most eagerly anticipated Ashes since 2005.
Stokes’s left knee is the elephant in england’s room, more so even than Jofra Archer’s elbow, Jimmy Anderson’s groin, Ollie Robinson’s ankle or Olly Stone’s hamstring.
No one can be sure if the captain will be able to play an all-round part in the series that will define his leadership and the longevity of Bazball like no other until he takes to the field again this summer against Ireland at Lord’s next week — unless he deems it a warm-up match and decides to wait until the first Ashes Test on June 16.
That includes the england management, who are waiting with bated breath — like the rest of us — to see how Stokes shapes up when he returns from a spell in the IPL spent almost exclusively sitting on the bench.
‘he seems OK but we will know more when we report next week,’ one dressing room source told Mail Sport. ‘ he keeps himself very much to himself.’
The last time we saw Stokes in england colours, he was unable to bowl in New Zealand and virtually batting on one leg, seemingly reaching crunch time with the chronic injury he has somehow managed and defied over the last few years.
Yet he assured us after the final Test in Wellington that he was fit enough to go to the IPL and would work on his knee while in India to ensure he could bowl against Australia and, crucially, provide that all-important balance lacking in an england side without him.
Since then he has bowled one over for Chennai Super Kings and damaged his toe, seemingly by taking out his frustration on an inanimate dressing-room object. Significantly, it appears he has not been doing any bowling, with white or red ball, in the nets. At least he has rested that knee and maybe that will be enough to enable him to again defy the odds and come storming back with those lung-busting spells of shortpitched enforcer-type bowling that could provide england’s only Ashes point of difference.
Certainly Brendon McCullum, for one, remains convinced all will be all right on the Ashes night with the captain, pointing out how much this series and the whole Test cricket adventure means to Stokes and that ‘we all know he writes his own scripts’.
There is no doubt the leadership of Stokes has been the biggest single factor behind england’s astonishing transformation and he is worth his place, like Mike Brearley, on captaincy alone. even though it would be nice if he was a little less selfless with the bat and concentrated on his own performance as much as everyone else’s.
But his bowling could make all the difference to england’s chances, especially as Stokes’s plans to fight fire with fire have been hit by those injuries to Archer and Stone.
We can only hope those superhuman powers will soon be revealed like rarely before.
He damaged a toe seemingly by taking out his frustration on an inanimate dressing-room object...