Indian Premier League

A genuine seam-bowling all-rounder who has the ability to hit big shots is a priceless commodity in the T20 format. Therefore, it wasn’t a surprise when Ben Stokes fetched earth-shattering numbers at the 2017 IPL auctions. He was picked up by the Rising Pune Supergiant and in his maiden IPL season, the charismatic Englishman showed why he was worth all the money. He was a gun bowler for RPS, particularly at the death where he executed the yorker and the other variations to good effect. With the bat too, he won a few games single-handedly including an IPL century that was ranked among the knocks of the tournament.

With over 300 runs and more than 10 wickets, Stokes’s 2017 season was terrific and was arguably the most valuable player of that season. At the fresh 2018 IPL auctions, he once again attracted smashing numbers with the Rajasthan Royals snapping him up in an extremely costly deal. However, Stokes neither got going with the bat nor with the ball and was below par in both the seasons (2018 and 2019).


World Cup 2019

14th July 2019 saw Ben Stokes realising every bit of human emotion. England had taken the game into the Super Over and Ben Stokes was the one who faced the last ball with two needed. He again came out to bat during the super over and scored 8 off 3 to help England reach 15 runs in the one over eliminator. With 16 to win, New Zealand also managed 15 but lost the finale on the boundary count-back rule. England were crowned champions and Ben Stokes was awarded the Man of the Match award. Stokes also scored 5 fifties during the WC campaign and was always the man making the difference towards the end of the innings.

Stokes is at his peak right now and it couldn't get any better for the left-hander when he played an astonishing unbeaten knock of 135 during the Ashes and his last wicket partnership with Jack Leach, who contributed 1 in a stand worth 76 runs as England pulled off a stunning one-wicket win over arch-rivals Australia, in a keenly contested Headingley classic - the same venue where a similar England all-round, Sir Ian Botham, had conjured up that classic 149 in the 1981 Ashes. Can Stokes go one past Botham and become England's folklore hero? Has he banished memories of the night club incident forever? Only time will tell

Written by Abhinand Raghavendran and