England left Pakistan with bags full of happy memories, the last time they played a Test tour there, in 2022. Bazball was new and fresh, back then. It was invincible. It was incomprehensible. It was a mystery. Coming here this time, they might have expected to be welcomed the same way and if anything an inning win in the first Test match further bolstered those expectations. But little did England know all hell was going to break loose and make the rest of their stay in Pakistan become a part of their ‘forgettables’.
Ben Stokes, England’s Test captain and co-creator of Bazball, had to take a sabbatical back among his roots to get some part of that defeat out of his mind. A defeat that came with a couple of other things made Stokes call the Pakistan tour his ‘hardest trip’.
“It was one of my hardest trips,” said Stokes remembering the team’s below-the-mark performance against Pakistan. “But also one that I’ve hugely benefited from.”
While he was figuring out a way to find an antidote to Pakistan’s new-found lethality, his house was broken into by burglars, who took many of his valuables including his OBE medal. Add to that the fact that he was still struggling with the aftereffects of his recent injury, as was evident from not only his outings with the bat but also his uncharacteristic show of frustration on the field and some brain-fade-ish decisions in the last Test game.
“It’s made me realise that me being a captain, me being the leader of this team, I can’t take myself into that sort of area ever again – focusing on myself so much as an individual.” England’s skipper said recounting his shortcomings on the Pakistan tour.
Ben Stokes had a race against time to regain full fitness in time for the second Test match, having missed the series opener already. By his own admission, this focus on his recovery made him momentarily forget that he had a team to lead.
“I had my hamstring injury, and as soon as I could get going again, I had a focus on a date to get back. I worked incredibly hard for a very, very long period of time. And then when we got out to Pakistan, obviously pushing and pushing and pushing myself to get ready for that first Test, made a late call and then tried to get myself ready for the second Test.”
“I’ve been pretty honest with myself and pretty honest with Baz and the team as well, that I got so individually focused on myself over a long period of time of trying to get back from injury. I actually I did physically drain and ruin myself, which definitely had some kind of mental impact on me. I sort of almost worked myself too hard to get back to fitness, and then all of a sudden, I was out in a Test match.”
During the second Test, Stokes reacted to his teammates’ fielding fumbles with an uncharacteristic roar of exasperation. While some might deem it as a display of passion for the game, for Stokes and ‘the kind of leader he wants to be’, this called for not just one apology, but two.
“And there’s no doubt that my frustration was showing when things weren’t quite going our way. That definitely has an impact on, not only the players around me, but also the group and the management around you as well. Because everyone’s walking on eggshells around you, because they can sense it. But it wasn’t till I got home that I realised that then, obviously, with the robbery happening, that made more of everything for me out there.”
The first came right after the day’s play when he apologized to his teammates and also did not shy away from mentioning it to the media. As if it was not enough, he swapped his usual pre-series pep talk ahead of the red-ball series against New Zealand with an apology session. In words as clear as could be gathered, Stokes said that even in the instances where nothing seems to be going right, he, as a captain, will focus on what’s best for the team.
“It was a realisation for me that, right, okay, if I ever find myself in this situation again, I need to maybe take a step back and think about what’s best for the team,” he said while talking to the media. “Because I feel like when you’re in a position that I’m in, you always need to be focused on that, as opposed to yourself, if that makes sense.”
The English Skipper arrived in New Zealand earlier than his teammates, to surprise his family, most of who live in Christchurch. Coming back to where it all started for him has helped him find a way out of all the bad memories that Pakistan sent him back with.
“I came out earlier than the team did to surprise my family. Only a couple of them knew. They managed to keep it secret. So this tour, obviously, is more than just cricket for me. I try and enjoy this country as much as I possibly can. It’s a great place to tour, but, yeah, it’s great for me to be able to see people who I don’t get to see that often. And so there’s more to it for me than there is for everyone else here.”
England are on the brink of losing another chance to make it to the WTC final. Even a 3-0 win in New Zealand will not guarantee a place for them at the Lord’s in June next year.
