(^) Daily Mail, Wednesday, August 28, 2019
74 ASHES SENSATION
BEN LOVES TO
HELP OTHERS,
HE HAS THIS
MAGNETISM
W
hat we saw at
headingley from
Ben Stokes was
the performance
of a cricketer who
has matured as a person and
now fully understands what
he’s capable of and how to
go about it.
When he first came back into the
team after his ban it was as if he
just wanted to keep his head down.
that was understandable, but it
also meant for a while we lost his
aggression — which makes him
such a dangerous player. Now he’s
combining the aggression of old
with a new clarity of thought.
think back to the World Cup
final. a few years ago, with England
needing two off the last ball of the
50 overs to win, he’d have tried to
belt it into Regents Park. But he
decided he wanted to guarantee
the super over first, then push for
the second. It didn’t quite work,
but the thought process was spot on.
as you could tell from the way the
guys reacted on Sunday after Eng-
land’s one-wicket win, Ben is the
ultimate team man and the others
love him for it. Jack Leach would
have felt anything was possible,
purely because it was Ben at the
other end.
he has this magnetism. Whether
it’s in training, at the gym, or in the
restaurant, the others want to be
with him.
I remember after the 2016 World
t20 final in Kolkata, when Carlos
Brathwaite hit him for four succes-
sive sixes. he was distraught, obvi-
ously, but his main concern was
that he had let his team-mates
down — which of course he hadn’t.
But he recovered quickly, to the
extent that Moeen ali now regu-
larly teases him about never being
allowed to bowl another final over.
Ben just laughs, he’s got perspec-
tive on things.
he loves to help others, not for
show but because he cares about
the team. We were doing fielding
practice once at the Wankhede
Stadium in Mumbai and Ben was
picking it up one-handed on the
boundary and, off-balance, hurling
it to me from 50 or 60 yards away.
adil Rashid wasn’t having quite
as much luck, so I said to him: ‘Pick
it up two-handed, gather yourself,
then throw it back.’
But Ben got involved: ‘No, no.
You can do it like I did it.’
I tried to explain to Ben that adil
didn’t have the same physical
attributes as him, but gradually he
learned the skill. then, against
West Indies at Bristol two years
ago, adil ran out Chris Gayle for 94
with a direct hit from midwicket. If
Ben hadn’t encouraged him like he
did in Mumbai, that might never
have happened.
One of his many strong
points is that he’s not afraid
to challenge trevor Bayliss.
the two of them get on bril-
liantly and Ben likes to
throw one of trevor’s catch-
phrases back at him when
the team are going through
a rough patch: ‘Wake up
tomorrow and you’ll be
f** breathing.’
after we’d lost a one-
dayer to New Zealand in
Dunedin in 2018, we had a
dressing-room meeting to
discuss why we’d gone
from 267 for one to 335 for
nine and lost the game
when Ross taylor battered
180 not out.
Some of the guys were
saying we should have bat-
ted more conservatively
and ensured a bigger total,
but Stokes spoke out and
said we were right to have
taken the aggressive
option — we just didn’t
From improving Rashid’s fielding to joshing
with Mo, Stokes is England’s heartbeat
BY PAUL FARBRACE
Former England assistant coach and
now Sports Director at Warwickshire
execute our skills properly. he was
spot on. We went to Christchurch
and won the series decider easily.
there have been times when
we were concerned that he
over-trained, even when he came
back into the team in 2018. But
he’s learning to look after himself
better. after England won the test
in Pallekele against Sri Lanka last
year, he went straight back to the
hotel for green tea and a skinfold
test. Previously, it might have been
for a few beers.
It was also interesting that he
didn’t celebrate his hundred at
Leeds. During his incredible 258 at
Cape town in January 2016, we
were wondering if he wanted time
to get to 300, so I sent a message
out with the 12th man. the reply
came back: ‘I don’t care what you
do. I’m just trying to hit every ball
for six.’ and he very nearly did.
as we saw on Sunday, Ben fights
until the end, which I reckon is in
the genes.
his old man Ged was a tough
rugby league player and Ben’s got
a similar bloody-mindedness. But
now he’s thinking more clearly,
too. Over the next few years, the
results could be frightening.
Paul Farbrace was talking to
Lawrence Booth
ng
id
s.
il-
to
h-
n h p e - n a o e r e d e - y d
Lawrence Booth
Team leader: Stokes
discusses the game
with Farbrace GETTY IMAGES
«
Jimmy must prove he
will last the five days
JIMMY ANDERSON successfully
came through an extensive
workout in the heat of Chester
yesterday and looks certain to
be named in England’s squad
for the fourth Test at his home
ground of Old Trafford.
As long as there is no reaction
to the 20 overs Anderson
bowled in a Lancashire second
team game against Durham
then he will be added to the 12
that formed the squad for the
epic third Test at Headingley.
Then England will decide next
week when they have had a
close look at Anderson in
practice whether he is fit to
win his 150th Test cap.
Anderson took one for 38 and
feels he has fully recovered
from the calf injury that forced
him to pull out of the first Test
at Edgbaston after bowling just
four overs. But England will
need to be certain there is no
danger of him breaking down
again and leaving them with
only 10 players, a key factor in
their first Test defeat.
The selectors meet to pick
their squad either today or
tomorrow and England are
loath to make any changes to a
winning side even though the
Ben Stokes-inspired win in
Leeds papered over the cracks
in a batting line-up that was all
out for 67 in the first innings.
But Sportsmail understands
they will finally grant coach
Trevor Bayliss’s wish for Jason
Roy to be moved into the
middle order, with Joe Denly
opening. Otherwise the only
decision England will need to
make is whether Anderson
comes back for Chris Woakes,
who still looks fatigued from
England’s World Cup win, or if
the 12th man at Lord’s and
Headingley Sam Curran is
handed his first chance of the
Test summer.
England could add Surrey’s
21-year-old batsman Ollie Pope
to the squad if they want cover
but are more likely to leave
him on the sidelines for now.
Probable England squad for
fourth Test: Burns, Denly, Root
(capt), Roy, Stokes, Bairstow
(wkt), Buttler, Woakes, Archer,
Broad, Leach, Curran, Anderson.
By PAUL NEWMAN
Cricket Correspondent
THE ASHES
EXCLUSIVE
wang
(Wang)
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