Instead of calling Stokes an irrational hothead, salute his masterclass in the art of captaincy

Charles Darwin debunked Adam and Eve, Bob Dylan went electric at the Newport Folk Festival and Nicolaus Copernicus claimed that the earth moved around the sun. More sacrilegious and far more challenging to the prevailing natural order than any of them, the heretic, Ben Stokes, declared on 393-8 on the first day of a Test match.

The shackles of conformity are made of strong steel and the outrage that met the England captain’s decision to put Australia into bat for a few overs near the end of play at Edgbaston on that Friday evening is only now subsiding into mild incandescence.

As England prepare to try to level the Ashes series at Lord’s this week, it has been instructive to witness just how widely Stokes has been patronised and vilified since England fell to that two-wicket defeat in Birmingham. 

Many broadcasters have talked about him as though they are trying to soothe a madman. They are pleading for him to show a little caution, to dial things down a bit, to compromise. They talk about him as if he is an irrational hothead who must be humoured. 

The reality, though, is that Stokes has one of the sharpest tactical brains in modern cricket. England have won 11 of 14 matches under his captaincy. He is a natural leader, an inspiring man-manager and an instinctive tactician. He, and the style of play he is encouraging, are the reason England got so close to beating Australia at Edgbaston. 

Ben Stokes has been patronised and vilified since England fell to defeat in the first Ashes Test

He has sometimes been painted as an an irrational hothead who must be humoured

He is, in fact, one of the sharpest tactical brains in modern cricket and a great leader for this England side

Stokes didn’t cost England anything. The opposite, actually: his players cost him, with a series of dropped catches, missed stumpings and an epidemic of no balls. He nursed England to within an inch of beating the Australians despite effectively losing his only front-line spinner mid-way through the match and working with a batting line-up which is, collectively, inferior to Australia’s. 

England have been massively over-achieving under Stokes and they massively over-achieved again at Edgbaston. Their approach to batting, an intoxicating mix of classical elegance and modern shot-making, provides the kind of spectacle that can only help Test cricket prosper and take hold among a younger audience. 

It is a side-issue but the way England are playing is attracting record numbers of viewers and listeners. And yet the reaction to Joe Root, the best Test batsman in the world, attempting a reverse ramp shot when he faced the first ball of the fourth day at Edgbaston was characterised by footage of the TMS team having an attack of the vapours at his audacity. 

To a younger audience, it was exhilarating sport. There is no point saying ‘it’s just not cricket’ because, well, it is cricket. It is the evolution of a sport happening in front of our eyes and it’s beautiful. 

Joe Root’s attempt to ramp Pat Cummins off the first ball of day four was characterised by footage of the TMS team having an attack of the vapours at his audacity

Stokes is leading the evolution of a sport in front of our eyes and his side will continue to go hard

Dylan sang that night in Rhode Island that he didn’t want to ‘work on Maggie’s Farm no more’, a metaphor for breaking free of the societal rules of 1960s America. English cricket’s Maggie’s Farm is a gerontocracy of traditionalists deeply suspicious of change and innovation. Stokes has no interest in labouring there, either. 

‘Play it ****ing loud,’ Dylan told his band when he was booed by fans at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester as they launched into Like a Rolling Stone. And it is clear already that far from retreating from their breathtakingly bold approach, Stokes will tell his players to ‘go harder’ when the Second Ashes Test begins at Lord’s on Wednesday. 

Some of the criticism he has received for his captaincy in Birmingham, not to mention some of the comments aimed at Root because he was stumped for the first time in his career after dancing down the wicket to Nathan Lyon in England’s second innings, has shone a light on the innate conservatism that still surrounds the red-ball game in this country. 

Criticism has shone a light on the innate conservatism that still surrounds the red-ball game in this country

To this observer, Stokes taught a masterclass in the art of captaincy in the First Test. England’s aggression shook Australia out of their rhythm in the field and backed them into negative tactics from the first ball, which Zak Crawley crashed through extra cover for four off the bowling of Australia captain Pat Cummins. 

Stokes and his bowlers set a series of innovative, clever, stifling fields that seemed to disconcert, as well as restrain, Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith. And when Australia had England reeling at 28-2 in their second innings, Root played one of the best cameos you will ever see to turn the match in England’s favour again. 

And if you don’t want to take that from me, take it from Mark Taylor, one of the best Australian captains of the last 40 years, who has been enthralled by Stokes’ captaincy and who said, in a conversation with Mike Atherton this week that the first-day declaration was ‘a no-brainer. I thought it was a brilliant declaration.’ 

One of Australia’s greatest captains, Mark Taylor (right), has been enthralled by Stokes’ captaincy over the last year

Stokes made England look the better team at Egbaston despite the fact Australia are newly-crowned Test champions and the best Test side in the world

‘The Khawaja dismissal in the second innings was a classic piece of Stokes captaincy,’ Taylor added. ‘Round the wicket, a slightly different field set to a batsman who was in and settled, bowling what we in Australia call a “nude nut”, a blancmange ball, which Khawaja chopped on to his stumps. It’s not always the magnificent delivery, it’s about trying to find ways to create doubt and uncertainty or change a batsman’s thought process.’ 

Those who have lambasted Stokes appear to have forgotten that Australia are the best Test side in the world, newly crowned as World Test Champions after a dominant victory over India in the final at The Oval earlier this month. They have more high-quality individuals than England and yet Stokes made England look like the better team. 

Maybe some cricket traditionalists are alienated by the terminology that has been applied to England’s approach under Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum but Bazball is not just a gimmick with a populist name. It is aggressive Test cricket for a new age that is constructed with the aim of helping England win back the Ashes and supplant Australia. 

Stokes says that it is not results-oriented cricket but the England captain is more desperate to win that just about any cricketer I’ve ever watched. A cursory glance at his history tells you he doesn’t react particularly well to defeat. His approach is about allowing his players to play with freedom. It is a means to an end and the end is to win.