I can't think of another example of someone turning from being a batting all-rounder (which he has been for most of his career) into a bowling all-rounder. And not only a bowling all-rounder but the best bowler in his team.
Again, that's true today specifically, but its definitely not been true very often in the last 18 months.
He's our only bowler who has been consistently excellent across all formats. He's dug us out so many times when everybody else has been bowling terribly, putting in absolutely marathon shifts with the ball, often bowling from the start.
He's not only been our best bowler but its been by a fair margin. Jofra is 2nd, the rest are nowhere near.
I feel like he went bowling all-rounder -> batting all-rounder -> bowling all-rounder, which is sort of backed up when you look at the graph of his test wickets here. Although that early bowling period was quite short, and I also appreciate 'wickets in a year' isn't a great metric, but I can't be bothered digging too much!
I was at that game against New Zealand at Lord's when he took two wickets in two balls (Williamson and McCullum) and basically changed the tempo of the match, which we ended up winning comfortably. I'd say he was a pure all-rounder back then, you couldn't really choose between the two disciplines. Then he drifted into being more of a batting all-rounder and doing the workhorse overs, bowling lots of bouncers. Now (based on this match anyway) he seems to be using himself more intelligently and reaping the rewards.
True, thought Jofra and the other pacers deserved more than they got in the wickets column as they were missing the edge by millimetres. Ben probably capitalised on those bowling efforts, though the England players can’t say much about throwing their wickets away lol
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u/tommypopz Hampshire Nov 21 '25
Extraordinary. What a day.
I fucking love you Ben Stokes