Ben Stokes is an English international cricketer who is the captain of the England Test team and plays for the England Twenty20 International (T20I) team. In domestic cricket, he represents Durham and has played in multiple Twenty20 leagues, including the Indian Premier League, playing for Rising Pune Supergiant and Rajasthan Royals.

Born in New Zealand, Stokes moved to England as a child. He made his T20I debut in 2011, his Test debut in 2013, and played for England's One Day International (ODI) team from 2011 before retiring from the format in July 2022. He was part of the England team that won the 2019 Cricket World Cup, top-scoring in England's innings in the final before batting in the tied Super Over, winning the Man of the Match award. He was named the Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World in 2019, 2020 and 2023, and won the ICC Award for Best Men's Cricketer and BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award in 2019. He was appointed captain of England's Test team in April 2022. He was part of the England team that won the 2022 T20 World Cup, top-scoring in the final.

An all-rounder, Stokes is a left-handed middle-order batter and right-arm fast bowler. He holds the Test world record for most runs in an innings at number six, scoring 258 against South Africa during England's 2015-16 tour. In the same Test, he and Jonny Bairstow set the world record for highest sixth-wicket stand in Tests, at 399. In February 2023, he set a new record for the total number of sixes hit in a Test career, surpassing the previous tally of 107 set by his coach at the time, Brendan McCullum.

Early life

Benjamin Andrew Stokes was born on 4 June 1991 in Christchurch, New Zealand, the son of rugby league player and coach Gerard Stokes (known as 'Ged'), and has some Māori ancestry. Stokes moved to England at the age of 12 after his father was appointed head coach of Workington Town rugby league club, and grew up in the small West Cumbrian town of Cockermouth, attending Cockermouth School and playing cricket for Cockermouth Cricket Club. He won the North Lancashire & Cumbria Cricket League Premier Division Title with the club as a 15 year old in 2006. His parents subsequently moved back to New Zealand to reside again in Christchurch; Ged Stokes died in New Zealand on 8 December 2020 due to brain cancer.

Domestic Career

Stokes made his one-day debut for Durham in 2009 at The Oval and managed to take the wicket of the highly experienced batter Mark Ramprakash with only his third delivery in professional cricket. He played in two youth Tests against Bangladesh U19 during 2009, in which he made a half-century and took a few wickets. He then went on to play in the 2010 Under-19 World Cup, during which he scored a century against the India Under-19 team.

Stokes made his first-class debut for Durham against the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) during the traditional season opener, which for 2010 was taking place at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. During that match, he bagged a half-century and took one wicket. At the start of the 2010 County Cricket Season, he also made his Championship debut for Durham when he played in a fixture against Essex. He made his maiden first-class century against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge on 13 May 2010. He has also featured for Durham in the Clydesdale Bank 40-over competition. Durham's continuing problems with many players becoming injured at the start of the 2010 season meant that Stokes continued playing in all forms of the game for Durham. Having had a very successful debut season in first-class cricket, he was given a place in the England Performance Programme and travelled to Australia during the 2010–11 Ashes.

Stokes was a key member of the Durham side that won the 2013 County Championship, and was also named Man of the Match in the final of the 2014 Royal London One-Day Cup Final at Lord's, having scored 38* and taken 2 wickets in a low-scoring game against Warwickshire.[16]

On 2 January 2015, Stokes joined the Melbourne Renegades of Australia's Big Bash League for the remainder of the season as a replacement for Jesse Ryder, who was ruled out due to an injury.

On 13 February 2017, Stokes was appointed vice-captain of England's test team, deputising under Joe Root, who was made captain the same day.

On 6th May 2022, Stokes marked his return to Durham with a record-breaking 161 from 88 balls on day two of the County Championship game against Worcestershire that included him scoring 34 runs runs in a single over. In said over, Stokes hit five consecutive sixes but failed to make clean contact with the final delivery of the over, getting only a one-bounce four causing him to miss out on becoming only the third cricketer in history to score six sixes in an over of first-class cricket. However, the innings still surpassed Paul Collingwood's record for the fastest first-class century by a Durham player and the record for the most sixes hit in a County Championship innings.

Stokes has been part of the Northern Superchargers squad since the inaugural season of The Hundred in 2021 but has only made two appearances for them so far. Despite missing the entire 2022 season of the competition, he was retained by the Superchargers in 15th February 2023 ahead of the coming season.

Indian Premier League

In February 2017, Stokes was bought by Rising Pune Supergiants to play in the Indian Premier League during the 2017 season. He made his maiden Twenty20 century against Gujarat Lions, hitting 103 not out from 63 balls, including hitting seven fours and six sixes. He was named as Most Valuable Player for the 2017 season. For the 2018 season he moved to Rajasthan Royals having been bought for £1.7million, the most expensive player in the 2018 IPL auction. In October 2020, he scored 107 not out for Rajasthan Royals as part of an unbeaten partnership of 152 with Sanju Samson. During the 2021 IPL, Stokes suffered a finger injury which ruled him out from the entire season after playing in only one match. He pulled out of the 2022 edition as he wanted to focus on his country's Test team. He was bought by Chennai Super Kings to play in the IPL 2023 season for INR. 16.25 Crore (£1.6 million) in the IPL auction held on 23rd December 2022.

International Career

2011-2012 Ireland , India and New Zealand

Stokes made his senior England debut in a One Day International (ODI) against Ireland in August 2011. Stokes was caught and bowled by Paul Stirling for just three runs and did not bowl; however, he did take a catch.

2013-2014 Ashes series

Stokes was selected for the England squad for the 2013–14 Ashes series against Australia. He became the 658th player to represent England at Test level. He made his debut in the 2nd Test and took the wickets of Michael Clarke and Peter Siddle before contributing 1 run in England's first innings. In the second innings, he made 28 runs off 90 balls in England's loss. He was selected in the 3rd Test and took the wicket of Brad Haddin, he then made 18 off 57 deliveries. In Australia's second innings he bowled Michael Clarke and took Steve Smith's wicket. In England's second innings he made his maiden Test century scoring 120 off 195 balls before being caught. In the first innings of the 4th Test he made 14 runs, then managed to get Shane Watson out. In the second innings he hit 19 runs and took the wicket of David Warner in England's loss. Stokes took a career-best 6 wickets for 99 runs in the first innings of the 5th Test, including the major wickets of captain Clarke for 10 and top-scorer for the innings Steve Smith for 115. Stokes top scored for England with 47 runs in the first innings to help England limp to 155 all out. In the second innings he made 32 and finished the series on the losing end of a 5–0 whitewash. Stokes enjoyed a solid series, however, finishing as England's third-highest run scorer with 279 runs and also second-highest wicket taker with 15 wickets. Stokes was the only English batter to score a hundred in the series. Stokes was praised for his batting efforts on a typical fast and bouncy Waca surface against the hostile fast bowling of Mitchell Johnson at the height of his bowling powers. The Guardian described Stokes's WACA century as "the only welcome positive for the future."

2015 Ashes

In the one off T20I against Australia, Stokes took figures of 1–29 as England won by five runs. Stokes played in all five ODIs against Australia, his best performance with the ball coming in the second game of the series where he took figures of 3–60, although England lost the match by 59 runs. During the second ODI match of the series against Australia, Stokes was given out obstructing the field. He became only the sixth batter to be given out in this manner in an ODI game. While Stokes never took another wicket in the series, his batting did improve. He scored 41 in the fourth ODI which England won by 3 wickets. Although England lost the final ODI to lose the series 3–2, Stokes was one of England's better performers, scoring 42 of their 138 runs.

2015-2016 South Africa

Stokes returned to full fitness to take his place in England's winter tour of South Africa. While Stokes did not make a stand out contribution in the first test, England won by 241 runs. In England's first innings of the second test in Cape Town, Stokes arrived at the crease with England 167–4, facing a hat-trick ball from Kagiso Rabada. Stokes then hit a career-best score of 258, which included 30 fours and 11 sixes. It was the second fastest double century in the history of test cricket (from 167 balls). His sixth wicket stand with Jonny Bairstow (who himself scored 150 not out) of 399 was a new world record, of which 196 were scored in 25 overs in the morning session on Day 2 alone. Stokes' innings was ended in bizarre fashion, when after hitting two successive sixes, he was dropped by AB de Villiers only to be run out having paused between the wickets. The match finished in a draw with the batsmen dominating the game. In the third Test Stokes took five wickets as England won, securing a series victory for England. The fourth and final match of the series was won by South Africa, although Stokes did take another five wickets, including 4–86 in South Africa's first innings.

In the first Test against India, Stokes made 128 in England's first innings to help them reach 537. He took one wicket in India's first innings, before making an unbeaten 29. The match ended in a draw. In the second Test he finished with figures of 1–73 in India's first innings, before making 70 with the bat. He was out for six in England's second innings as they lost by 246 runs. In the third Test he made 29 in England's first innings, and then took 5–73 in India's first innings. After making five in the second innings, Stokes failed to pick up another wicket as England suffered another defeat. In the fourth Test he made 31 in England's first innings score of 400, but failed to pick up a wicket or make an impression in England's second innings as they lost by an innings and 36 runs. In the final match of the series, Stokes picked up just one wicket and scored 29 runs in the match as England lost by an innings and 75 runs. For his performances in 2016, he was named in the World Test XI by the ICC and Cricinfo. He was also named in the ODI XI of the year 2016 by Cricinfo.

2019 Cricket World Cup

In April 2019, Stokes was named in England's squad for the 2019 Cricket World Cup.

In the opening match of the tournament against South Africa, he made a score of 89 runs from 79 balls, claimed two wickets, ran out Dwaine Pretorius and took two catches to be declared "Man of the Match" in a comprehensive 104-run win for England. His catch to dismiss Andile Phehlukwayo has been described as "one of the greatest catches of all time".

Stokes produced multiple standout performances with the bat later in the group stage. Stokes was left stranded on 82*, as England were bowled out for 212 in a surprise 20-run defeat to Sri Lanka. He again proved to be the only resistance to Australia's bowling attack in their following match, by scoring 89 runs in a chase of 286. England ultimately fell short by 64 runs as they were bowled out for 221. In a must-win match against India in the following group match, Stokes played a very important innings, scoring a quick-fire 79 runs in 54 balls, as England won by 31 runs.

In the final against New Zealand, he scored 84*, including 2 sixes in the final over (one traditional and one due to overthrows after a ball bounced off Stokes' bat to the boundary), to tie the game. He then batted in the super over with Jos Buttler, which again was a tie, but England won the match on the boundary countback rule then in place. For this performance, he was named man of the match for the second time in the tournament.

He was named in the "Team of the Tournament" for the 2019 World Cup by the ICC.

2021 Stand in captain, break and the ashes

During the 2021 season, the England limited-over squad suffered a COVID outbreak at the end of a limited overs series against Sri Lanka. The whole squad, including the captain Eoin Morgan, had to self-isolate just before a home series against Pakistan. Stokes had not played against Sri Lanka due to injury, leaving him as the most senior player for the Pakistan ODI matches, for which he was named captain. He led the inexperienced team, in which he had almost four times as many ODI appearances as the rest of the team combined, to a nine-wicket victory in the first match. In the next game of the series against Pakistan, Stokes played in his 100th ODI match.

On 30 July 2021, it was announced that Stokes would take an "indefinite break" from cricket. In October 2021, Stokes was added to England's squad for the 2021–22 Ashes series in Australia.

Records and achievements

Man of the Match in the final of the 2019 Cricket World Cup.
Second-fastest Test double hundred in terms of balls faced.
Fastest 250 in Tests for which he took only 196 balls.
Second highest number of sixes in a Test innings – 11 sixes.
Highest number of sixes in a Test career.
Most runs in a Test innings at the sixth position – 258 runs.
Most runs in the first session of a day in Tests – 130 runs.
Highest Test partnership for the sixth wicket. He achieved this feat against South Africa when he made a partnership of 399 runs with Jonny Bairstow.
Became the second cricketer after Ian Botham to have over 4,000 runs and over 100 wickets in Tests for England.
Highest number of sixes in a County Championship innings – 17 (for Durham against Worcestershire in May 2022).