'Freakish' is the only word Jonny Bairstow has to describe Ben Stoke's talent

Ben Stokes has been a sensational find for the England cricket team and he’s proved it time and again with his all-round capabilities on the field. When asked to summarise Stokes’ talent, his teammate and England wicketkeeper-batsman, Jonny Bairstow used the word ‘freakish’ very aptly. Speaking on behalf of Royal London ahead of the upcoming ODI series versus West Indies, Bairstow spoke at length about the significance of Stokes in the upcoming Ashes series as well as the strong middle order that the English team currently sports.

England have discovered a true all-rounder in the form of Stokes, who’s considered by many as one of the all-time bests for the role. He further cemented his existing reputation by averaging 57 with the bat and an impressive 22 with the ball against the West Indies in the Test series very recently. Bairstow not only showered praise on the 26-year-old but also expressed hopes of Stokes’ abilities boosting the chances of England’s victory in the Ashes.

Bairstow lauds Stokes

Speaking about Stokes’ umpteen talent, Bairstow said, “I don’t think his ability and skill has ever been anything that people can question. We’ve seen him play some freakish innings, bowl some very good spells, so long may that continue with him. With Ben, it’s about letting him go and letting him play the way he does.”

The 27-year old batsman-wicketkeeper emphasised on the importance of every player being able to contribute to the team’s cause and said, “Ben is a match-winner, we’ve got a few of them in the team and that’s so important, we’ve shown that if one of them doesn’t do it then we’ve got others in the team and that’s a big part of our game. We’re very lucky to have someone like Ben in that middle order but it’s not just him, we’ve got Moeen (Ali) and Chris and Toby (Roland-Jones) who are all all-rounders, so having two strings to the bow of many players is something quite important to us as a team moving forward.”

“As long as we can keep developing all aspects of our game in that middle order, who knows how far we can go with it. It’s an encouraging place for us to be where we can have people change a day and a session, and Ben is someone who can do that with bat or ball,” he added.