Ben Stokes, who has been coping with a problematic
knee, was selected for England’s 15-man World Cup squad as a pure batter, and
how that could play out in India was on display in the third ODI against New
Zealand at the Oval, where he smashed 182 to record the highest individual
score for England in the format.
“This is the first time that I’ve been clear in
my mind that that’s the one thing I can focus on,” Stokes said. “I
think over the last 18 months, every day has been like, ‘will I bowl, will I
not bowl?’ Now, I know that I can just focus on that.
“That’s my thing for the team now. Having that
clarity in my head contributes to that.”
Stokes said he hasn’t changed a lot about a game since
moving to the No.4 position. “I’d prefer not to go in that early because I
want to see the other lads at the top do well. I don’t think I’ve necessarily
changed my approach in one-day cricket from all the years I spent at No. 5 or
6,” he said. “I still think that batting at No. 4, I’ll go out with
the exact same approach I had at No. 5.”
Stokes said that his innings on Wednesday reminded him
of “how much time there actually is” in an ODI innings. “You
have way more time than you think,” he said. “In terms of game
awareness and game smartness, today was good for that.
“Today was good for me personally, just to get
familiarity again with how 50-over cricket goes. We started off and lost a few
quick wickets, then wanted to go out and put them under a bit of pressure.
There were a couple of times I had to check myself because I looked up and
there were still 23-24 overs left – that’s how one-day cricket can go.
“The thing that I came to realize throughout the
innings was how much time there actually is. There were a couple of stages
where I was scoring quite freely and felt like I wanted to keep on going and
going and going, but realizing how many overs I had was the big thing for
me.”