Ben Stokes: Legendary cricketer Ricky Ponting has compared Ben Stokes’s match-winning abilities to Mahendra Dhoni after the English captain’s blitz in the second Ashes Test at Lord’s. Ponting lavished huge praise on Stokes saying, he is far ahead of his contemporises in dealing with pressure situations, just like how Dhoni did for India over a decade. The southpaw almost singlehandedly pulled off another stunning win, just like he did in Headingly in 2019 Ashes.
Stokes, though could not finish the match as he was out for 155, as Australia won the second Test by 43 runs and took a 2-0 lead in the five-match series. However, Ponting is super impressed with the ability Stokes manages to win matches in clutch moments.
“I thought, and everyone probably thought he could do it again because we’ve seen it happen before, but this was probably, slightly more runs that they were chasing (in 2019),” Ponting said on the latest episode of The ICC Review.
“The first one that comes to mind is maybe someone like a Dhoni, who’s there at the end in a lot of T20 games, and finishing games, whereas Ben’s doing it at the end of Test matches, and there’s not, probably not many, many players through the history of the game that have found themselves in that sort of role and are there at the end winning games, and especially as a captain.”
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Ben Stokes: Ponting says numbers not a reflection to value Stokes adds a match-winner
Cricket is always about numbers, and Stokes’s average of 36 with bat and more than 32 with the ball does not reflect his ability to win matches from difficult situations. However, Ponting feels the southpaw has the remarkable ability to change matches on his head at any level.
“We have all over the years really only sort of judged cricketers on their numbers and their stats of what their average is and how many wickets they take,” Ponting noted.
“If you looked at Ben Stokes in that light only, it doesn’t do him full credit to the player that he is as he averages 35 (36) with the bat and 32 with the ball.
“So those numbers alone don’t sort of put him in the highest echelon of players. But when you see him play like he did (at Lord’s) and do some of the things he’s done for this team over a long period of time, then we have to find ways to start measuring cricketers in a better way of how they impact games, how many games they actually can win themselves because he’s an out and out match-winner, that’s for sure.”
Not only in Test cricket, but Stokes has helped England win the 50-over World Cup in 2019 and T20 World Cup in 2022 in Australia. The southpaw’s composed half-century against Pakistan ensured England edge ahead in the game.
Ponting is impressed with Stokes’s ability to handle pressure situations well and adjust his game accordingly just like Dhoni did during his time in the finisher role.
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