England all-rounder Ben Stokes
49.44 and 136.84 - those are the strikes rates of a single batsman in two different innings of the same Test. Yes, the word you are looking for is adaptability. And that is what a player like Ben Stokes can offer.
Across the first two days of the second Test against West Indies at the Old Trafford Stadium in Manchester, Stokes constructed his longest Test innings, scoring 176 runs off 356 deliveries. His century, en route to his highest individual score on home soil and second-highest overall after his double ton against South Africa earlier in his Test career, was his slowest of all his 18 first-class tons.
Two days later, on the fifth morning, Stokes was sent down as an opener after England managed to fold the visitors for 287. England were looking for quick runs to extend their lead across 280 before declaring the innings to set up a challenging target for West Indies. Stokes, who was opening the innings for the first time in his first-class career, slammed 78 runs off 57 deliveries lacing four boundaries and three sixes. And en route to the knock, Stokes slammed the fastest fifty by an England opener, scoring it off just 36 balls.
Stokes's strike rate difference for the two knocks was 87.41. According to CricViz, of all the players to make 50-plus scores in two different innings of a single Test, Stokes's is the third highest after Misbah ul Haq (101 off 168 and 101 off 57 against Australia in 2014), and Joe Burns (58 off 114 and 66 off 39 against India in 2015).
Stokes's fiery knock single-handedly helped England extend the lead to 311, as he scored 60.47 per cent of the runs in that innings. The next best score was off 22, scored by skipper Joe Root.
Stokes's contrasting knocks laid on either side of what was one of his longest spells that he bowled on the fourth afternoon. It included 57 short balls, the most he has bowled in a single session.
