Ben Stokes: England's latest boom or bust all-rounder

Ben Stokes

First Test: Pakistan v England
Venue: Abu Dhabi Dates: 13-17 October Start time: 07:00 BST
Coverage: Ball-by-ball Test Match Special commentary on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra, Radio 4 LW, online, tablets, mobiles and BBC Sport app. Live text commentary on the BBC Sport website
It was said of Greta Garbo's stand-in that "she has everything that Garbo has, except whatever it is that Garbo has". The point being, nobody could ever quite put their finger on what made Garbo so magnetic. She just was.
One man's Oscar-winning performance might seem overwrought to another, while a hundred runs is a hundred runs, however they are scored. And yet sports fans value mysterious magnetism just as much as film buffs. And in England, no sportsman is more mysteriously magnetic than a cricketing all-rounder.
Ben Stokes, plainspoken and down to earth, sees things in less romantic terms. "When you pay to watch sport you want to be entertained and there's nothing more entertaining than watching lads trying to whack it out of the park and bowl at 90mph," he says, ahead of England's three-match Test series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates, which begins in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.
But for English cricket fans, it's not only about the brawn, but also about imponderables such as verve, timing and charisma. Whatever it is that Stokes has and potential stand-ins would sell their souls for.
Ian Botham and Andrew Flintoff
Stokes has been compared to all-rounders Ian Botham and Andrew Flintoff
The first Test against New Zealand in May is viewed as the moment England got a grip following a disastrous World Cup and began laying firm foundations for their Ashes victory. But at 30-4 in the first innings against the Black Caps at Lord's, things looked decidedly rickety. It was only when Stokes (92 from 94 balls) and Joe Root (98) mounted a whirlwind restoration job that England really took off.
In the second innings, Stokes hit the fastest ever century at Lord's and England went on to win the game by 124 runs. England had a new hero - same as those old heroes, Botham and Flintoff: men who emptied bars when there was meant to be nothing left to see, chips were down and backs were pinned against walls.
"I like the feeling of having pressure dropped on my shoulders," says the 24-year-old Stokes, who first served notice of his ferocious spirit with a ton in only his second Test at Perth, during England's humiliating 2013-14 Ashes defeat. "I like to be thrown the ball or walk out to bat when people think it's already over.
"When we were 30-4 on that first morning at Lord's, I imagine there were plenty of people who hadn't forgotten about Kevin Pietersen quite yet. But to go from loads of people wanting him back in the team to people not really talking about him and proclaiming this England team as class, that was brilliant."
For a while, it appeared that this ferocity of spirit might be Stokes's undoing. There was a bit of bother with the law in 2011;  the time he was sent home from an England Lions tour in 2013; punching a locker, breaking a wrist and missing the World Twenty20 in 2014. All stuff he's no doubt bored of being reminded of and which journalists will soon stop writing about.
Ben Stokes, Joe Root

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