On Monday evening, England were leaving Edgbaston after an outstanding day that turned the Test their way. They filed on to the team bus, through a throng of fans – most of them supporting India.
The bus was turning on the Edgbaston Road when Ben Stokes spotted a young boy in England colours being consoled by a steward. He was crying in the belief that he had missed his chance to meet the team.
Stokes demanded the driver pull over, and sent England’s security detail to fetch the youngster, who – with his brother and mother – was invited onto the bus to spend a few minutes with his heroes. After a handful of pictures and autographs, the family said their farewells and the bus set off back for Birmingham city centre.
This little tale distills Stokes’ approach to the England captaincy. He wants to bring the people with him. Brendon McCullum, the head coach, often uses the analogy of his team all facing the same direction on the bus to capture teamwork. Stokes wants to open the bus up to the rest of us, too.
“We have always had unbelievable support in England, no matter what we have gone through as a team,” said Stokes. “But now I think we are getting a different, new group of fans.
“We have had a lot of people turning up to games for the first time and have absolutely loved it. It's been thrilling to watch, with bat and ball in hand. When you are doing that you are doing something right as a team.”
Stokes is right on two fronts. It has been thrilling to watch. But Test cricket has also cut through in the last month. Four times, England have hit the winning runs in front of spectators who are not paying for the privilege. At Lord’s on day four, Joe Root got the job done so quickly that ticket holders were refunded.
Then Trent Bridge threw the doors open on day five and were followed by Headingley and Edgbaston. The result has been attendance from those who either could or would not normally watch Test cricket, and a heady atmosphere.
Stokes is intent on getting new people involved, and he wants to do it by doing things differently.
By the time he and McCullum first met as captain and coach, Stokes had been a Test cricketer for more than eight years. He had only played in 79 of more than 2,450 matches across Test cricket’s 145 years. But he had long wondered why things were done the way they always had been, both in terms of style on the field and approach off it. He wanted to challenge the prevailing wisdom of a grand old institution.
“The first chat with Baz was – yeah we can do it this way – why not?” he said. That means removing “external” noise. Training is more fluidly timed; England are arriving at the ground later; warm-ups are more role specific.
“There’s enough on individuals and as a team as it is but taking all the other stuff away is why everything is so relaxed and calm and enjoyable at the moment,’ he said.
“As long as everyone goes out there comfortable in knowing that their preparation is good and that everything has been done the way they want as individuals, then why wouldn’t you do it like that?”
On the field? “I think a better word is positive,” he said, when asked about his aggressive approach. “Looking at every situation we are going to find ourselves in and always looking at what the positive thing to do is.”
He cited the example of England ditching a regular nightwatchman in favour of a “nighthawk”, Stuart Broad, “to go out with half an hour left to play to try to literally slog”. The aim? “30 off 10 balls, or 0 off one”.
There are cricket smarts involved too, but the central premise for England is a good one: do what the opposition least want you to
There are cricket smarts involved too, but the central premise is a good one: do what the opposition least want you to.
Stokes’ captaincy style is to pump up those on the fringes. When asked the moment this match turned, he opted for Jack Leach’s only wicket; Rishabh Pant (a player Stokes said he would love in his team) for 57 in the second innings, in the knowledge that he could easily have whacked England out of the game.
The contribution of Alex Lees and Zak Crawley in laying the platform for England’s chase was given as much credit as Joe Root and the prolific Jonny Bairstow, who moved into the top 10 of the ICC’s batting rankings today, after his sixth century of the year.
Stokes is brazen in his ambition: “we want to create a legacy of Test cricket. We have done that in white-ball cricket and we have seen other teams follow in those footsteps.”
The only shame, now, is that the bus pulls over for six weeks before England take on South Africa. First, McCullum returns to New Zealand for some housekeeping, while Jos Buttler’s white-ball team have their fun, starting tomorrow. The way things are going, it will probably not look that different.
