England’s Ben Stokes a cricket superstar who also can act like a ‘spoiled brat'

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Ben Stokes is one of a kind.

He is head and shoulders above most of his England teammates and, it is fair to say, that without his presence and that of former captain Joe Root, this would be a fairly ordinary national squad.

In the current series against India, the redhead has displayed his class with bat and ball, and without him, England would possibly have been down 2-1 instead of being in front with one Test to go.

Stokes has put his body on the line in the four encounters and he isn’t kidding when he says he is all sore and hurting as the squads go into battle in the finale at The Oval starting on Thursday.

Stokes fought tooth and nail to hand India a loss in the fourth Test at Old Trafford in Manchester that would have wrapped up the series 3-1, but little did he and the rest of his squad realize this India squad led by newcomer innings and Shubman Gill isn’t prepared to roll over and surrender.

No one in their right mind would believe the visitors would survive an England onslaught and pull off one of the greatest escapes in Test folklore.

It matched the drama of the third Test at Lord’s, where England nosed out India by 22 runs. At Old Trafford, India lost its first two wickets without a run on the board and 311 runs behind England’s imposing first-innings total of 669.

Few expected an Indian team minus recently retired greats Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin to fight back with such vigour, but it appears that the country has embraced new skipper Gill who has led with his bat.

Gill, of course, hit his fourth century in as many matches to launch the platform for his country’s recovery and defy England.

He received solid support from the ever-dependable KL Rahul (90) and the two starred in a partnership of 188. Skipper Gill, who has been a thorn in England’s side, stroked a superb 103 in his near seven-hour, stamina-sapping stay at the wicket before losing his prized wicket to Jofra Archer.

That took his overall total in this series to 722 runs, well ahead of Rahul who has 511.

India coach Gautam Gambhir was full of praise for his skipper.

“An important thing is that he’s living up to his expectation, his own talent, and more importantly is (that) he is the captain and has a burden of pressure,” Gambhir said.

His departure raised England’s hopes, but there was more pain to follow for the home team while millions of fans back in India had their fingers crossed that all-rounders Ravindra Jadeja and Sundar Washington would pull it out of the fire.

Jadeja, for long considered one of the greatest all-rounders in the game, lived up to his reputation while the up-and-coming Washington soaked up the pressure and combined to frustrate an England attack that ran out of ideas. Jadeja (107 not out) and Washington (101 not out) fashioned a brilliant stand of 203 for the fifth wicket, much to the chagrin of Stokes and England.

Stokes has spent the past couple of days resting in bed, but has made it clear no pain will stop him from taking the field at The Oval on Thursday.

Apart from the hurt and pain, Stokes and England has been roundly criticized for its petulant behaviour against Jadeja and Washington on the final day at Old Trafford.

When Stokes realized there was no way England could win with 15 overs left, he extended his hand to the batsmen signalling for a draw. But Jadeja and Sundar were unbeaten on 89 and 80, respectively, and looking to get to their hundreds.

That’s when Stokes and other England players started spewing verbal barbs at the two. Former England captain Nasser Hussain was surprised at the attitude of Stokes and his team since the two “Indians were playing for their hundreds.”

Former India batsman Sanjay Manjrekar accused Stokes of behaving “like a spoiled kid,” claiming that England was “making a mockery of the game” by bowling part-timers to end the match quickly.

“OK fine, he’s unhappy that the players haven’t walked off, he’ll have to manage his overs carefully with main bowlers already exhausted from bowling long spells whole day,” Manjrekar said.

“It was Ben, the hero, the champion that I admire, but on this occasion behaving like a spoiled kid.”

Meanwhile, Gambhir was all fired up at the practise session on Tuesday when he had a run-in with curator Lee Fortis. Video footage shows Gambhir pointing his finger at Fortis and yelling: “You can’t tell us what to do” and “you’re just the grounds man, nothing beyond.’’

With India looking to tie the series, it is expected to field fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah and also give spinner Kuldeep Yadav a chance.

Meanwhile, England has added fast-bowling all-rounder Jamie Overton to the squad.

Should be an exciting and spicy end to a great series.

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