Poor batting, uninspired leadership and lack of bowling make for forgettable return to scene of greatest win
Matt Roller26-Oct-2024Rawalpindi was the scene of Ben Stokes’ best performance as England’s captain and this week, two years on, his worst. It took his side less than 24 hours to turn a position of dominance into a nine-wicket defeat in this series decider, to which Stokes’ own contribution was 15 runs, an uncharacteristically flat performance in the field, and no overs bowled.When Stokes has made mistakes as England captain they have generally been the result of overconfidence in his convictions, as in their defeats to New Zealand in Wellington or Australia at Edgbaston. This was something different, a loss that owed primarily to England’s own limitations as Stokes seemed to run out of ideas.That was certainly true of his batting on the final day, a nine-ball cameo with another farcical ending. After seeing Noman Ali find sharp spin from the footholes in his previous over, Stokes withdrew his bat when facing a delivery that hardly turned and was struck on the inner thigh of his back leg. Not many cowboys have offered no shot at a gunfight and lived to tell the tale.Even in a desperate situation, Stokes realised that asking for a review would have been futile and simply trudged back towards the dressing room. He had found a method and stuck to it in his second innings last week, sweeping almost every ball before his bizarre bat-flinging dismissal, but this leave betrayed a total lack of conviction against Pakistan’s spinners.Stokes will be more relieved than anyone else by England’s forthcoming schedule, which does not involve a return to the subcontinent for a Test until early 2027. His career average in Asia is now 26.46, dropping to just 18.00 across 14 innings this year. Having missed England’s win in Multan, he has now lost six overseas Tests in a row: four in India, and two in Pakistan.He suggested afterwards that he could not have done anything differently: “You see how hard everyone works on all aspects of their game, and sometimes those things just don’t fall right for you.” It felt like a moment of acceptance, with Stokes effectively conceding that he is not equipped to make runs on a turning surface like this, no matter how hard he trains.Stokes was unusually flat in the field as Pakistan dominated the agenda•Getty ImagesStokes’ captaincy on England’s previous tour to Pakistan was ingenious, manufacturing 60 wickets across three Tests played on lifeless pitches – none more so than in Rawalpindi. But this week, he let the game drift away on the second afternoon: Pakistan added 167 for their final three wickets, reinforcing a familiar trend that England struggle to finish teams off.Before the lunch break, elongated for Friday prayers, Stokes had used his legspinner brilliantly, giving Rehan Ahmed an in-out field for an eight-over spell which brought the wickets of Mohammad Rizwan, Salman Agha and Aamer Jamal. But Rehan was not used until the ninth over of the middle session, and struggled to find his length after a change of ends.Gus Atkinson, meanwhile, did not bowl between the end of the 70th over and the start of the 96th, in which time Pakistan added 132 for 1. When he returned, he removed centurion Saud Shakeel with his sixth ball. Stokes himself did not bowl a ball in the match: “I just didn’t feel like my bowling was going to be anywhere near as threatening as the [other] options we had.”He was unusually irritable in Multan, and went as far as apologising to his team-mates after letting out his frustrations on them following a series of fielding errors on the third day. Stokes played up the role of the toss in that defeat but could not make the same excuse in Rawalpindi. “I’m very satisfied that we lost the toss and won the match,” Shan Masood, Pakistan’s captain, said.Related
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Stokes made clear that two months of rehabilitation from his hamstring tear had taken a lot out of him. “It’s felt like a very long tour,” he said. “Coming out here to try to get fit for the first Test, not fit for that, get fit for the second Test, played that, straight to the third…” It is not the Stokes way, but he might have been better served, physically and mentally, by missing the tour entirely.He finds himself at an interesting juncture. Stokes confirmed at the start of this tour that he has signed a new central contract, but has declined to say whether he will enter the upcoming IPL auction or whether he will return to Pakistan in February for the Champions Trophy. He has built his 2024 solely around Tests, but has so far averaged 24.66 with the bat and taken six wickets.Stokes seemed reluctant to introspect after the defeat, instead throwing forward to England’s upcoming tour to New Zealand. “The great thing about cricket’s schedule is the challenges that cricket throws at you,” he said. “You’ll be faced with one, you try to overcome that, but then very quickly, we’ve got another challenge in two or three weeks’ time, which is in New Zealand.”It is all very well trying to move on quickly, and England will not play in conditions like these at any stage in the next two years. But when Stokes reflects on these defeats, he will look not only at England’s familiar deficiencies when it comes to both playing and bowling spin, but his own shortcomings as captain.