There is much to be admired in Ben Stokes: his cricket, his spirit, his leadership style, public sharing of his vulnerabilities. And yet there is a streak of churlishness that pops up now and then.
Like it did at Old Trafford late Sunday evening. And also during the last Ashes at Lord’s when Australian wicketkeeper Alex Carey legally ran out Jonny Bairstow, who never returned to the safety of his crease at the end of the over.
Stokes had carried on a bit there too about the morality of it all. “If that’s the way they want to play the game …” – he would say as if the Australians had broken some rule or cheated.
The only issue then was that his batsman was out of the crease, and the only morality in Manchester is that the Indians were entitled to play out as many overs as they wanted. No rule could stop them and in case there was one, the umpires would have duly informed the Indians before Stokes’s uncalled-for enterprise.
Scored a hundred, saved the Test, farmed ♾ aura! 💁♂#RavindraJadeja didn’t hesitate, till the end 👀#ENGvIND 👉 5th TEST | Starts THU, 31st July, 2:30 PM | Streaming on JioHotstar! pic.twitter.com/cc3INlS07P
— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) July 27, 2025
What Stokes should be mindful of is that his view of morality isn’t the only one the world follows. He might think that a batsman wanting to score about 20 more runs, after playing for two full sessions on a fifth-day pitch and reaching 80s, was a ‘selfish act’. But others might not agree. This ‘self-centred’ standpoint might be prevalent among Bazball believers, but the rest of the world and the rulebook still gives batsmen the right to reach milestones and fans the right to watch their heroes score hundreds.
Saving Tests gallantly is still a legitimate third option, and Tests are not mandated to be binary.
At Old Trafford, a large number of Indian fans had reached the venue with hope. At the start of Day 5, England was the obvious favourite to win the Test. There were even chances of the game getting over by lunch but still they came in hordes after travelling miles.
Since morning, the fans crossed their fingers and prayed for their team’s survival. The wickets of Shubman Gill and KL Rahul by lunch spread gloom, but they still stuck around.
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They cheered India’s ball-by-ball, over-by-over, session-by-session recovery. They ran with Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar when they scampered between wickets and once the day’s heroes had virtually ensured a draw, they waited for them to get their well-deserved hundreds. They wanted to be part of the crescendo, let out their pent-up emotions, acknowledge the ‘great escape’, celebrate the draw when Jadeja and Washington would cross their 100s.
Spoilsport
But there was a problem. Carried away by the cult of Bazball, Stokes didn’t look beyond the book their coach Brendon McCullum had written for them. The world periodically gets to know about the Bazball commandments and Old Trafford too was educative. It came with the wisdom that for Stokes and his boys, personal achievements are pursuits of the petty and those with a shallow understanding of the game. Once there was no result possible, runs or wickets don’t matter. Maybe, Lord’s should think of taking down names of tons scored in drawn games from the honours board.
England were the hipsters, on a higher plane. The MCC writes the rules, the Bazballers decide the rights and wrongs – for their rivals and even for the paying public that stayed back for hours and relished every run that Jadeja and Washington scored while moving from 80s to 100. By the way, they also fancy themselves as entertainers and claim they give the fans what they want.
Even if one keeps the fans out of this and thinks of a scenario where Jadeja and Washington were not nearing their hundreds with 15 overs left when the English got itchy and lippy and started sledging, India had the rationale of playing as long as they wanted. Batting great Sunil Gavaskar once said that his favourite way of sending the ball to the boundary was making it roll slowly on the turf. “If one smashes it to the boundary, perhaps it is demoralising to the opposition. But I personally prefer the ball to just about beat the fielder because in that case, the fielder has been made to run those 25 to 30 yards,” he once said.
A dramatic finish. A tale of two camps. 👀🗣️
The final 10 minutes at Manchester had all the makings of a masala thriller! Here’s how #TeamIndia coach @GautamGambhir and England’s @benstokes38 reacted to the hand-shake chaos that unfolded.#ENGvIND 👉 5th TEST | Starts THU, 31st… pic.twitter.com/bSB8LhswLY
— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) July 28, 2025
Keeping England on the field for a longer period would have long-term gains for India, with the next Test starting in three days’ time. Just tiring the already exhausted England team wasn’t gamesmanship, it was sharp thinking. That would be hard-nosed cricket. Douglas Jardine, England’s best Test captain perhaps, would have approved, though Indians chose calm non-violence. So would Ian Botham or Freddie Flintoff, two equally skilled and popular England all-rounders. They too didn’t give an inch, minded their business and didn’t walk across to the other dressing room to give a sermon on cricket morality.
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Churlish
When Jadeja didn’t shake hands and walk off the field, Stokes would ask him – “Jaddu, do you want to get a Test 100 against Brook & Duckett?” It was an insult to an epic knock scored on a pitch with variable bounce against a quality attack. Jadeja got the 100 against Stokes, Jofr Archer, Brydon Carse, Liam Dawson and Joe Root and was still willing to play them and score the rest of the runs. It was Stokes who was throwing the ball to Brook and Duckett – it wasn’t Jadeja deciding the bowlers.
The solidity that Jadeja and Washington showed in the final session, it wouldn’t have mattered if the frontline bowlers had the ball in their hands. The Indians would have scored their tons and their fans would have celebrated anyway.
The England captain’s churlishness proved contagious. Young Harry Brook, England’s ODI captain and next in line to take over the Test captaincy, not only had a spray at the batsmen, but bowled utter filthy lollipops which could be argued was what demeaned the game.
It cheapened the great human spirit that raged in the fight shown by Jadeja and Washington and England’s bowlers’ inspiring struggle in trying to coax some life out of a comatose pitch.
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Cricket and cricketers make a big thing about ‘crossing the line’ – and all draw that line according to their own whims, expecting the rest of the world and cultures to follow that. But in doing so, they undermine themselves.
Towards the end of the Test where he played like Superman, Stokes showed he too was human. He might be leaning on morality to justify his stand, but in reality he was merely being a sore loser, trying to avoid the ignominy of watching his tormentors get their moment of glory. They might have won the race, but Stokes didn’t want them to take the victory lap.
