England didn’t add Ben Stokes to the third Test squad to carry the drinks, the all-rounder is a certainty to play at Trent Bridge this coming Saturday.
The 27-year-old was cleared of affray on Tuesday after a week-long case at Bristol Crown Court, freeing him up to star for Joe Root’s men against India having missed the second match at Lord’s.
And there is no doubt he should and will come straight back into the fold with England leading 2-0 and on the brink of securing the five-match series. Stokes, like he showed at Edgbaston in the opener, is capable of match-defining brilliance.
A fired-up Stokes is a frightening prospect for India’s batsmen given their tour is quickly falling off the rails. There is no point in the Durham cricketer sitting on the sidelines until the England and Wales Cricket Board conclude their disciplinary investigation into his behaviour.
The ECB are reviewing the wider issues surrounding Stokes’ conduct and looking at the extent of which he has brought the game into disrepute, given his privileged and role model position in society.
However, until those summations are founded, he is a free man and has served plenty of cricket punishment already, by virtue of having lost the vice-captaincy following the late-night incident in Bristol last year, which led to a subsequent suspension from the Ashes tour Down Under.
The old adage is you don’t change a winning team and that is a strong argument in this case, given the player who replaced Stokes – Chris Woakes – delivered a man of the match worthy performance at the Home of Cricket.
Woakes will of course retain his key all-rounder berth within the side but Stokes is in line to come in for Ollie Pope – the 20-year-old Surrey batsman who impressed on his Test debut at Lord’s.
On paper, it would appear to be a harsh decision to omit the youngster after just one match but his time will come again in the future and he was just a replacement in the first instance. Stokes is more than capable of slotting in at No5, with Jonny Bairstow moving up a slot to four.
Magnificent: Ben Stokes was the key man in the first Test against India.
That said, the form the wicket-keeper batsman is in, he can bat anywhere in this line-up – and deservedly so – while Jos Buttler could also be moved around.
The other option would be to leave out Adil Rashid, who was a virtual bystander in the second match, where he did not bat, bowl or take a catch in the field. His highly-publicised return to red-ball cricket has been low key but England need a spin selection and he is still the best available.
Either way, the presence of Stokes is a must and his comeback is not the news the Men in Blue would have wanted.
The tourists have been lacking confidence and fight which England will hope to further exploit with the all-rounder ammunition of Stokes, Woakes and emerging force Sam Curran.
Stokes can also help England chase a first Test series whitewash since the 2-0, two-match home series victory over New Zealand in 2013, while in recent years, their best clean sweep of a long-haul series came against India, on home soil, way back in 2011.
Given all what has happened, Stokes should now have a renewed sense of perspective about how special it is to be playing for England – and how perilously close he came to throwing the only thing he knows in life away.
Being back on the cricket field for the third Test will feel like the best thing ever and my England are glad to have him back for the remainder of this series.
