If Ben Stokes was making the headlines in the last couple of months for his batting performances, Thursday (September 7) was the day when the cricketing world saw the damage he can inflict with a ball.
Before the ongoing Test against Windies at Lord’s, the England all-rounder had not looked in a good rhythm this summer, and the stats are a proof of that. He had taken just ten wickets in the six Tests at home this season at an unimpressive average of 44. On the contrary, his batting form has been outstanding.
In the six Tests, he scored two hundred and three fifties. However, Stokes reaped the rewards for putting in a lot of technical work with outgoing bowling coach Otis Gibson, as he wreaked havoc with the ball in the first innings of the Test series, helping England to bowl Windies out for a paltry 123.
Speaking after the day’s play, Stokes credited Gibson for the turnaround and expressed his delight over getting the ‘monkey off his back’.
“The hard work contributes towards success which is why I gave a wave up to Gibbo,” Stokes said. “He’s helped me the last six or seven weeks putting loads of hours in with technical stuff, bowling in the mornings and at training. If it wasn’t for him, I’m not sure I would have had a day like I’ve had today.
“Probably the last three or four weeks, I feel like I’ve been getting back a bit of consistency with my action but not quite producing what I wanted. I felt I was letting the team down a little bit but then to go and bowl the way I did today was a monkey off my back. Hopefully, it’s a starting point, and I can start producing some better performances with the ball.”
“We looked at footage after the one-day stuff and felt my jump into the crease was a lot bigger than it used to be,” Stokes added. “My front foot was very tight to off-stump which it never normally is. Working a lot on alignment drills, a lot of work on seam position, making sure I was finishing my action off. I was almost bowling the ball and then getting up too early so obviously there’s not enough momentum going where you need it to.”
The fast bowling all-rounder bowled 14.3 overs on the trot and finished with an impressive six for 22, his first five-wicket haul at Lord’s. Stokes consistently troubled the visiting batsmen with his swing and pace.
When asked whether the spell was his best in Test cricket, he said:
“Yes, I think so. It was swinging when I got the ball and when the ball swings, it’s a good opportunity to run up and not just put the ball there but know it’s going to do something. I enjoy bowling those long spells, and it gets me into a good rhythm.”
“I assessed the conditions, knowing how much movement there was in the air so was trying to get them to play on the front foot as much as I could, get them driving,” he said. “I didn’t feel like the wicket was going to offer too much by bowling short.” Stokes admitted it “was quite hard to control the swing sometimes” but that he had tried to not “get too greedy and bowl too many magic balls”.
Stokes will now have to play a major role with the bat to bail his team out of the trouble. In reply to Windies’ small first innings total, England suffered yet another top-order collapse and was reeling at 46 for four when the day ended.
In fact, they lost the four wickets with only 24 runs on the board, but Stokes (13) and Dawid Malan (13) shared an unbeaten partnership of 22 runs to close the day.