Ben Stokes, the dopamine hit Test cricket needed

England skipper Ben Stokes won his 100th cap in the third Test against India in Rajkot on Thursday, becoming the 16th man to achieve the landmark for England.

“Every Test is just as important as the next one,” said Stokes on match eve. “Then there’s the next one, which will be 101—it’s just one more.

“It’s a sign of longevity, but 99, 100, or 101 doesn’t make much difference.”

Stokes’ love and commitment to Test cricket are sincere. But Test cricket’s need for Stokes in recent times — as a symbol of power and a source of quick dopamine— is greater still. It has felt, at times over the last two years, as if Test matches involving England are essentially a celebratory tour for Stokes and his fearless brand of captaincy. This five-match series in India could not be any different: it is, after all, Stokes’ chance to claim the one treasure that eludes him and reaffirm not only his legend but his team’s apotheosis.

Thanks to rapid professionalisation and quantum leaps in sports science, Stokes has already been able to survive at the game’s pinnacle for far longer than perhaps he himself could have imagined, given his injury nightmares. More striking still, though, is how every single step of his journey is being documented. Not just by the cadre of photographers from various news agencies but by everyone who crossed his path. Some may be hardcore cricket fans, others may not have the slightest hint about his career, but they all wanted a piece of him. That’s the pull he exudes.

Stokes has also consciously gone about puncturing whatever crusty ideals of machismo one may have, laying the groundwork for an iconography that seems much more suited to the common man, talking about his struggles with anxiety openly, something his compatriot and another cricketing phenom, Virat Kohli, too, has done.

Stokes has evolved into a gladiator: a barreling force who can punch holes from all areas and unleash thunderbolts with the bat — you know it’s coming and yet can only watch on, haplessly. Action seeks Stokes, whose game is modelled around the dramatic impact.

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Stokes made his debut against Australia in 2013. In the 99 matches since then, he has scored 6251 runs at an average of 36.34 and taken 197 wickets. Apart from Stokes, only Gary Sobers and Jacques Kallis have achieved the Test double of 6000+ runs and 150+ wickets. As the full-time Test captain, Stokes has led England in 20 matches, winning 14, losing five, and drawing one.

His Test stats, as a player, may not be in keeping with the nature of the Stokes phenomenon at large; it is, after all, not a bewildering maelstrom of records that the fans trumpet as empirical evidence of their favourite star’s supremacy. Hence, it is a curious sort of greatness. Not for him the warlike online idolatries one associate with the Kohlis, MS Dhonis and Rohit Sharmas of the world.

Ben Stokes of England celebrates hitting the winning runs against Australia in Headingley in 2019.
| Photo Credit:
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Stokes’ lasting power though will forever lie in a deep trove of highlight clips, and in what he shows is possible.