Eight moments that have defined Ben Stokes’ journey to 100 caps – by those who were there

On the eve of a landmark achievement for the England captain, Telegraph Sport breaks down the moments that have shaped his Test career.

“Don’t offer Ben Stokes a fight”

3rd Test v Australia at Perth, Dec 2013
Runs: 18 & 120
Bowling: 1-63 & 2-82

Stokes’s hundred in his second Test at Perth was a wake-up moment, a realisation England had a special young talent. But it is about more than just one match. That whole tour was a tough one to negotiate let alone for a player emerging as a new star. It was a sign of his mental toughness that he could rise above a 5-0 defeat, and the rancour that caused in the dressing room, with a reputation enhanced.

Australians have a high level of respect for Stokes the cricketer, particularly those that played against him. It started on day one of his Test debut in Adelaide. Graeme Swann takes up the story. “Brad Haddin squared up to him and offered him out in the car park for a fight. I remember thinking even then that the worst idea in the world is to offer Ben Stokes outside for a fight in the car park. You could tell from his upbringing, his background, that he was hard-nosed, no-nonsense. He did not have the showiness most young players have when they first get into the England team. They have a bit of a strut and cock of the walk about them but that was never Stokesy’s way. He was almost old-fashioned in that way.”

In Perth, where Englishmen melt in the sun, Stokes pulled and hooked Mitchell Johnson on his home patch. Johnson was on fire, no bowler has bowled so quickly and menacingly at Englishmen, but Stokes never backed down. “That is when everyone realised this boy can bat,” says Swann. “It’s funny because I thought he was more of a bowling all-rounder than batting all-rounder at first because he could swing the ball so much, especially the Dukes ball. I thought he was an Ian Botham type player but after Perth, yeah I realised he was not a bowler who can bat, he is a genuine Test batsman.”

The All-rounder is born

1st Test v NZ at Lord’s, May 2015
Runs: 92 & 101
Bowling: 0-105 & 3-38

Stokes moved to No 6 – the Beefy role and the place where proper all-rounders shape the match. He responded with the fastest-ever Test century at Lord’s off 85 balls as England played Bazball against a New Zealand team with Brendon McCullum in the side. Stokes would knock over McCullum and Kane Williamson in two balls to seal victory. This was after regime change. Peter Moores had not picked Stokes for the 2015 World Cup but he had been sacked, Paul Farbrace was in temporary charge waiting for Trevor Bayliss to arrive as head coach. “We all knew he was capable of great things, but this was the moment that made me realise,” says Chris Woakes. “We were under the pump against New Zealand. That was him unlocking the belief within himself. Every player has a moment where they take all that doubt away and realise they can do it. That was a big moment for Stokesy. He realised that his way to score runs was being aggressive, and a freak of nature.”

Bayliss was another Australian who admired Stokes. He knew he was going to be his match-winner and liked his straight-talking. “I always thought he was a leader of men even as a young bloke in the team. He was a guy that other people followed. When he spoke, even as a young bloke, everyone listened,” says Bayliss. “There were one or two occasions where he took the lead. If something needed to be said, he would say it. And if he had something to say that was in disagreement to what I might have said, he was not afraid to bring it up, which is what you want.”

Better than Beefy

2nd Test v South Africa in Cape Town, Jan 2016
Runs: 258 & 26
Bowling: 1-100

“All I can say is he must have been drunk or hungover when he said that.” This is Ben Stokes talking to Michael Vaughan in an interview for Telegraph Sport after his 258 in Cape Town which led Lord Beef to say Stokes was better at 24 (his age in 2016) than he was. Stokes is all about winning and he would not pick this Test as one of his favourites because it ended in a draw but sometimes great players are not always able to quantify their performances and his 258, albeit on a flat pitch, was a moment when he could be picked on batting alone. His 30 fours and 11 sixes was the first time he really showed the ability to pick his spot in the crowd, belting the ball almost at will to the foot of Table Mountain. South Africa had no escape.

“I was disappointed he did not hit the last ball before lunch for four because it would have given us 200 in a session. We had 196 in the session. He blocked the last one or two before lunch. We had a bit of a laugh about that later,” says Bayliss. “That was a sign of things to come. The way he struck the ball against the likes of Morne Morkel steaming in and hit him 20 rows over his head, everyone was in awe of what they were watching.”

Afterwards, Stokes sat down with Vaughan for an interview that lasted over an hour. It was the first time he had really opened up about his cricket. He admitted he was not academically brilliant but “streetwise” and gave a glimpse of his own future Bazball management.

“I am not a massive watcher of footage. I’m not a good listener in a team talk that lasts more than 15 minutes. I find it very hard to concentrate. I can concentrate for four or five hours in the middle because I enjoy it. But I don’t enjoy sitting down, listening to someone else talk. It is boring and I am back at school,” he said. The Bazballers have never had a team meeting.

“Trevor knows 100 per cent he has a 15-minute window with me. There used to be so many theories and ideas going into it and we got drawn away from the way we played for our counties which is what got us playing for England in the first place.” It is exactly the kind of message he and McCullum instil in their players now.

The maturing presence

3rd Test v South Africa at the Oval, July 2017
Runs: 112 & 31
Bowling: 1-26 & 2-51

This was the evolution of Stokes as a Test batsman, a performance that has become his trademark: a slow start and explosive end. On a difficult pitch, and a good pace attack, Stokes batted England into a match-winning position. From 120-4, he picked up the team by selecting the right moments to attack. He took 60 balls to move from 50 to 76 but reached his 100 with three successive sixes. He went after tiring bowlers, adding 74 from 77 balls for the last three wickets.

“That’s the hundred I remember,” says Bayliss. “We were in a bit of trouble. We had lost wickets and it was a tough pitch to bat on. It was seaming with good bounce in it. His first 50 or 60 was very watchful. He took them on the body. It was an old style Test innings but when the tail came in, his last 30-40 were made like he does now. That was when I really thought he was a big talent. It was before the Bristol incident. I was thinking there is our No 5 for Australia that winter. He is able to resurrect an innings when he needs to but is also able to polish off the opposition with his strokeplay. It has become his trademark. Lot of guys get out trying to play the highlights package straightaway. He gives himself a bit of a chance.”

The Test he should not have played

3rd Test v India at Trent Bridge, Aug 2018
Runs: 10 & 62
Bowling: 0-54 & 2-68

Stokes did not have a shocker in this game but he was just not there mentally. He had been acquitted of affray at Bristol Crown Court just four days earlier, ending an incredibly stressful period in his life that had dragged on for almost a year and cost him an Ashes tour and the England vice-captaincy. He arrived at Trent Bridge for pre-match nets besieged by cameras and doorstepped by the BBC. He obviously wanted to resume normal life but he needed another week to clear his head.

The signs were there that Stokes was struggling and the seeds for his break with mental exhaustion in 2021 were sown in this period. “If anything it probably made him grow up a little bit,” says Bayliss now of the Bristol arrest. “He was a guy who loved a beer and a cigarette and a night out but I think it got a bit close to home that incident. Perspective on life changes after something like that and he has gone from strength to strength.”

A legend is assured

3rd Test v Australia at Headingley, Aug 2019
Runs: 8 & 135*
Bowling: 1-45, 3-56

Sitting in the pub after the 2019 World Cup final a colleague said: “You know what, we will never experience anything like that again.” Well, six weeks later we did as Stokes wrote his name in cricketing folklore with his epic 135 not out, the greatest innings played in an Ashes Test.

The game was over, the Ashes in Australia’s back pocket at lunchtime on that unforgettable Sunday afternoon. The press box at Headingley has a seating area at the back, where you can concentrate a little more and seemed the perfect place to write the obituary on England’s Test batting. There was no real need to watch closely as last man Jack Leach walked out to bat. Occasionally there was a roar from the crowd as Stokes connected with a big hit but he will soon knock one in the air, surely. Then, even with a head down looking at the laptop, I could sense something was brewing. That obituary had to wait.

“In the changing room you are waiting for the inevitable, to lose the game,” says Woakes, who clearly thought it was over. “Leachy has walked out with 70-odd to win, and Rooty came over to me and said “while Stokesy is there we still have a chance, I genuinely believe that”. I said “yeah, yeah I totally agree”. But inside I was thinking “come on mate”. It was the best attack in world cricket. Rooty was bang on! Now, I would never think that again. If Stokesy is at the crease, he can win the game, no matter how bleak it looks. Any position. It’s ridiculous, there are so many things that can happen in a game of cricket. It’s a freak skill. It’s not just the skill, but the mentality. Almost the harder the situation, the better he is at it. When he came off the field, he sat down. There was some relief, and a little bit of ‘what have I just done?’ He was pretty speechless. Think he used so much energy, both mentally and physically. So freakish.”

This was the innings that created Stokes the Superhero. He scored three from his first 73 deliveries, 58 from the next 104 but 74 from the last 42 in a partnership of 76 with Leach, who scored England’s most valuable one not out. One final memory was a few months later at the Professional Cricketers’ Association awards dinner and a painting of their partnership was auctioned off. The winning bidder from the audience? Leach.

A captaincy masterpiece

1st Test v Pakistan in Rawalpindi, Dec 2022
Runs: 41 & 0
Bowling: 0-35, 1-69

His own numbers were relatively thin given England scored 506 on day one, which was shortened to 75 overs by bad light. Stokes had to call on all his tactical genius to generate time in the game to win. A few months earlier, Australia had won a dull series 1-0 by hanging in until the final day of the third Test and nicking victory. Relentless determination is how you are supposed to win in Pakistan. But not England, not the Bazballers.

They relished the chance to attack on such pitches and Pakistan retreated, unsure of what was going on. There were umbrella fields, invented fielding positions and nine men round the bat. England declared at tea on day four and set a target Pakistan would be tempted to chase. Stokes opened the bowling with bouncers to a square field to rough up the ball so it would reverse quicker for Anderson. Leach took the winning wicket as the sun dipped on day five and the call to prayer was going out from the Mosque next to the ground. The keepers at the chicken farm behind the press box were getting ready for the evening feed as Leach finished it all off.

“Whoever the opposition is, make no mistake, England are coming for you now,” cooed Sir Geoffrey Boycott in the Telegraph. “Stokes is doing things I have never seen before, so is on the way to that status (great captain),” wrote Michael Vaughan. Stokes was only eight Tests into his captaincy.

Greatest Ashes comeback denied

2nd Test v Australia at Lord’s, June 2023
Runs: 17 & 155
Bowling: 0-21 & 1-26

Another defeat but with his fightback with the bat, Stokes lifted England and the series mood changed. I have only heard Lord’s roar louder once than during this 155 and that was when Stokes was batting in the World Cup final. England lost this Test to go 2-0 down and were rightly criticised for falling into the bouncer trap in the first innings, just after Nathan Lyon had gone off injured and Australia were desperately playing their last card. Bazball had to wisen up. And it did.

After the Bairstow stumping incident, England were furious and Stokes channelled his anger into his batting. He and Stuart Broad added 108 in 21 overs. Stokes hit nine sixes and nine fours in a majestic display of ball striking as Australians scattered. Could he do it again? Not quite. “He didn’t say a word,” said Broad. “He was revving me up. I was saying: ‘Do you think I’ve got to calm down here, Stokesy?’ He said: ‘No, keep going. I think they’re properly rattled.’”

England had been a little too friendly with their opponents before then. Not any more. Stokes started his team-talk for the next Test at Headingley by saying “right it is time to beat these c---s.” And they did. Only Manchester’s rain denied Stokes the greatest Ashes comeback of all time.