Ben Stokes: Joining the league of Sobers, Kallis and promising more

The number of crowdpullers in cricket is, truth be told, dwindling by the day – but Ben Stokes is surely one of them. The England Test captain, who had long back answered their fans’ prayers for the next Ian Botham, has now taken himself a notch above by joining the league of two of the giant allrounders: Sir Garfield Sobers and Jacques Kallis.  

A rather mismatched battle between England and the West Indies at the Lord’s will now be best remembered for two watershed moments in Test cricket. If the first one is the signing off by the ageless Jimmy Anderson, the other one is that of ‘Stokesy’ becoming only the third cricketer to reach 6000 Test runs and 200 wickets after Sobers and Kallis.

It was a pleasure to see Stokes bowling at full tilt again after his knee surgery, picking up his 200th wicket with that of Kirk McKenzie and following it up with Mikyle Louis on second day of the Test on Thursday. He had 6316 runs to his name on the eve of this Test, his 102nd since making his debut in December 2013 as he averages 34.48 with 13 centuries and 31 half-centuries.

Kallis, the South African great, had finished with an awesome tally of 13,289 runs with 45 centuries and 58 half-centuries at an average of 55.37 in 166 Tests, apart from 292 wickets at an average of 32.65. Sir Gary, whom they call the greatest ever allrounder to have graced the game, scored 8032 runs at an average of 57.78 with 26 centuries and 30 half-centuries. He took 235 wickets in 93 Tests – thanks to his repertoire comprising of pace bowling and chinaman.

It's not courtesy the weight of statistics alone, but the reputation of a big occasion player that the 33-year-old Stokes has built for himself, which has helped him sit in the pantheon of the greatest allrounders alongwith the Big Two, Imran Khan, Kapil Dev and Richard Hadlee. The way the erstwhile bad boy of English cricket decided to prolong his career involved conscious choices and sacrifices – the latest of them being when he pulled out of contention for T20 World Cup selection to test himself for longer spell of bowling rigours.

‘’I’m sitting here now, being able to say that I can play the full role that I had been doing over the first 8 to 10 years,’’ Stokes said ahead of the Lord’s Test. The knee surgery which put a serious question mark on his bowling prowess seems to be history now as in the three County games for Durham ahead of the West Indies series, he had bowled a total of 89.1 overs to take 18 wickets at 18.33 apiece.

In 2023, Stokes announced his retirement from ODIs with an eye to prolong his career and then had opted out of IPL to manage his workload better. The next Ashes series in 2025-26 may seem a long way off, but Stokes and the team management (read: Rob Key, Director of men’s cricket and Test coach Brendon McCullum) have already started drawing a blueprint for it. The plan to look beyond Anderson had been a collective decision and part of the forward thinking where Stokes took it upon himself to resume bowling so that he could provide the edge and experience as their fourth seam bowling option.

A bigger picture about his international career shows Stokes has scored 10,368 runs across all formats at an average of 35.75, with 18 centuries and 56 half-centuries and his highest score remains 258. He has also reached the milestone of 300 wickets in international cricket – with his trophy shelves boasting of a ODI and T20 World Cup.

Talk of a generational player – and Stokes certainly is one.