RICHARD GIBSON: The greats reinvent themselves, and new model Stokes wants to be greatest skipper 

Ben Stokes is in the third and arguably most important phase of an extraordinary career: one that will define the place he eventually occupies in cricket’s great pantheon.

The very best sports people adapt over time and no one exemplifies this better than Stokes, who began his professional career as an impulsive cricketer whose natural ability threatened great things, but seldom delivered, until he altered its course by embracing a more pragmatic approach.

Now, having left his mark on the sport via World Cup-winning and Australian-slaying personal performances, he is combining facets of the first two periods to shape his England captaincy years.

The concoction of devil-may-care attitude and shrewd thinking has thus far proved intoxicating and not just for its results — 11 Test wins out of 13 ain’t too shabby, is it? — or the drastic transformation in the team’s outlook.

Stokes’ leadership is 12 just months young, but has already proved itself to be for the betterment of the international game at a time when others are neglecting it.

Ben Stokes has already done more to influence Test cricket than any captain since Clive Lloyd

Stokes has delivered change by asking team-mates to free minds and embrace possibilities

He has arguably already done more to influence the future path of Test cricket than any captain since Clive Lloyd unleashed West Indies’ four-pronged pace attack in the late Seventies.

And what could be more powerful at a time when Twenty20 tournaments are the tangle weed on Test cricket’s lawn than an Ashes series victory based on the principles of fast-scoring and dismissing opposition batters rather than containing them?

When Rob Key said ‘buckle up and get ready for the ride,’ in pairing Stokes with the like-minded Brendon McCullum last May, no one could have forecast the speed of transformation in a team with one win in their previous 17.

Bazball has stuck as a description of England’s style — to the displeasure of McCullum, it ought to be said — but ultimately it has been down to the cajoling of different tunes out of the same instruments by on-field conductor Stokes.

Upon his appointment, he placed the England captain’s handbook in the shredder, becoming only the 13th man in Test history to declare in the third innings when he offered Pakistan a tempting 343 in four sessions in Rawalpindi.

The batters have scored at five runs per over when international rivals have not topped 3.5, while the bowling attack have dismissed opponents in each of the past 24 Test innings — a sequence not previously achieved by an England team for nearly 50 years.

Change has been delivered by asking team-mates to free minds and embrace possibilities rather than fear them. Cricketers fail more than they succeed. Take England’s most prolific ever player Alastair Cook as an example. Cook made twice as many single figure scores as hundreds (65 v 33).

It is not easy for a player to switch mindset in his 30s but it is something Stokes has managed to persuade the likes of Joe Root and Jack Leach, both of whom he competed against as Bunbury Festival cricketers, and evergreen seamers James Anderson and Stuart Broad, to do.

He has done so by taking a leaf out of his younger self’s book. On the prospect of becoming a parent at 21, he said: ‘I have always been someone that meets challenges when they present themselves, not someone who worries about what might be. I have always lived in the moment.’

Yet, despite replicating his career average of 36 while wearing the armband, there is an overriding sense that he has sold himself short with the bat via acts at the crease designed to get others to buy into his policies.

Take last year’s hack at Headingley that left England in trouble against New Zealand before Jonny Bairstow and Jamie Overton rescued things, as a contrast to the considered approach of his magnum opus innings on the same ground against the Australians in 2019.

Bazball has stuck as a description of England’s style despite ire of coach Brendan McCullum

This week, Stokes made a point of telling followers of England’s fortunes that there is no such thing as a bad shot — only well-executed and badly-executed ones. And he will not ask others to do something he would not, hence his hour-long slogs with the ball last winter.

Stokes did not bowl against Ireland last week, but the grimace that followed the bracing of his legs upon catching Curtis Campher did not look promising, and if the Ashes becomes a personal Battle of Wounded Knee, it will almost certainly be because England are on the wrong end of things.

But they will need him to contribute a portion of all-rounder’s overs to the attack, particularly given the absence of first-choice spinner Leach. Stokes invested a year in Leach.

There will be no dwelling on recent memories under England’s current captain, though — only the making of new ones in this most eagerly-awaited of summers.