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Stricken Ben Stokes is a man crushed by weight of carrying England alone
Once again captain shows true endurance but, with nothing left to give, he looks painfully aware that tourists’ race is run
The suffering of Ben Stokes shone a light on his team’s torment in this Ashes series, with his colossal spirit coming at a price for his creaking body in a forlorn and surely futile quest.
For the best part of three sessions he had jutted his chest out and weathered the searing Adelaide heat to kindle a few embers of hope, only to see them extinguished by a parade of part-time off-spinners going for five an over. Self-preservation is the least of the England captain’s priorities, especially when he scents a comeback. But as he withdrew himself from the bowling attack on another torrid day in the field, this born fighter looked as though he had little more to give.
At 34, Stokes knows this is, in all likelihood, his final tour of Australia. And there is now the awful possibility that he could retire without winning a single Test, never mind a series, Down Under. His determination to change the narrative here has been palpable. He has spoken of his side’s frailty in the crucial moments, of the need to summon up some “dog”, of his recognition that this is no country for weak men. Such rhetoric has counted for nothing, though, against the chasm in quality between these sides. No sooner did some optimism stir, thanks to a rousing rearguard partnership between Stokes and Jofra Archer, than centurion Travis Head ground it into the sun-baked outfield.
Stokes is a man crushed by the weight of carrying England alone. While Archer has been the one stand-out performer, with an Adelaide five-fer in brutal conditions and a maiden Test half-century, the leader has been the only figure to show true endurance. Having given his team-mates a lesson in batting restraint in Brisbane, he stood up to the latest bombardment for 198 deliveries, finally succumbing for 83 when he misjudged a glorious piece of wobble-seam from Mitchell Starc. As he drove at a ball he should have defended, only to watch it nip back through the gate, he leapt in the air in anger, screaming at himself for the mistake.
Archer ran over the boundary rope to pat him on the back. If nothing else, it signalled a truce after their frosty exchange on the second day, when Stokes had snapped at him to bowl fuller. But Stokes seemed to know in that instant that the race was run, that any type of first-innings deficit for England was punishable. With Australia resuming 85 ahead – far fewer than feared, although still too many against a bowling attack this limited – the worst fears were realised, with Head and Alex Carey treating the endless overs of rank off-spin with disdain.
It is one of Stokes’s qualities that, no matter how desperate England’s predicament is, his body language seldom falters. But as he saw Will Jacks flayed through the covers with wearying frequency, the signs of struggle were difficult to ignore. He had looked a spent force after his mammoth defensive effort on a 42C (108F) afternoon, needing to be restored with assorted carbohydrates and electrolytes overnight. His 50 off 159 balls was his slowest since his Headingley heroics of 2019, with the only difference this time being that he lacked the power to put his foot down. As the scale of the task grew bleaker in the field, he lacked the ability to bowl a single over.
At one stage, Stokes seemed to be feeling discomfort in his groin. During one drinks break, he did not even appear in the dugout. These were worrying portents and, sure enough, England had neither the nous nor the skill to apply pressure in his absence, with Australia’s batsmen gorging on the pies sent down by Jacks and Joe Root to their hearts’ content. The bulletin on his health in the aftermath was confusing, with spin-bowling coach Jeetan Patel saying only that the grind of this Test “may have taken a toll”.
Not that Stokes is ever too deterred by the scars of battle. Even after sustaining a second hamstring injury in five months during last year’s tour of New Zealand, he memorably said: “I ain’t holding back.” It pains him more to produce a diminished performance. This was why, with the Ashes slipping out of England’s grasp, he removed himself from the bowling altogether, staying true to his all-or-nothing philosophy.
But while an image endures in the collective consciousness of Stokes as some insuperable hero, vanquishing Australia almost on his own on that sunlit Sunday in Leeds six years ago, the equation is vastly different this time. The England players he commands are fragile, flaky, shown up at every stage by the Australians’ toughness and superior match awareness. The sheer toil of trying to keep them afloat on his own is threatening, day by draining day, to sink him altogether.
[Source: Daily Telegraph]
