Charging in head-first yet again, Ben Stokes has made England's Ashes test that much harder
It was in Mohali before Christmas last winter. The ball was always going to beat Ben Stokes to the boundary - and India, moreover, were certain to knock off the last few runs and win. But these considerations did not stop Ben Stokes charging like a demented bull after the ball and diiving headfirst into the boundary markers, in vain.
Charging in head-first, and sparing nothing, is what Stokes does. This is why he was appointed England’s Test vice-captain before the start of the summer, as Joe Root’s deputy.
Following a street incident in Bristol after the third one-day international against West Indies he was arrested at 2.35am on Monday on suspicion of causing actual bodily harm.
On this occasion Stokes has set the worst sort of example to the rest of his team - By going out at night after a game, instead of staying in the team hotel.
The immediate consequence - that Stokes and Alex Hales, who is assisting the police with their enquiries - will miss the last two matches of the one-day series against West Indies - is immaterial in cricket terms. England are 2-0 up against a forlorn West Indies team and they would have to lose several more of their players, in addition to Stokes and Hales, for the teams to be well-matched.
Far and away the biggest consequence will be the impact on Stokes’s involvement in the Ashes. Depending on the legal process to come, he could miss part or all of the series which extends from November 26 to January 9 - and England’s chances without Stokes, their star allrounder, would dwindle from substantial to negligible.
In his 39 Tests he has averaged 35 with the bat and 33 with the ball; last time in Australia, on the whitewash tour of 2013-4, he was the only England player to score a century and he was in his debut Test series.
Inevitably, England’s morale in Australia will be damaged. When the Ashes squad is named at 10 am, Stokes can be selected for it, but he surely cannot be the vice-captain while this investigation hangs over him.
The England squad will also feel as though they are under siege in Australia if Stokes is around and unable to go out of the team hotel because of the risk of agents provocateurs. England’s team room will become a claustrophobic place. Ten weeks of mounting hotel-fever will work in Australia’s favour. England’s chances of retaining the Ashes they gained in 2015 are much reduced.
