Stats: Ben Stokes completes an all-round double after picking up his 150th Test wicket

Ben Stokes took up England’s leadership role for the Southampton Test match without any experience of leading in professional cricket. By end of the 3rd day, England found themselves in a critical situation due to a batting collapse in the first innings. Though it is quite early to make comments over tactical nous of Stokes, one thing is assured that the responsibility has not affected the all-rounder’s performance and impact.

Stokes was England’s top-scorer in the first-innings having scored 43 and added a crucial 67-run partnership with Jos Buttler for the 5th wicket. Later, with the ball, he claimed four wickets to restrict the visitors to 318. Stokes dismissed both the half-centurions – Kraigg Brathwaite (65) and Shane Dowrich (61) during the West Indies innings and also got rid of their skipper Jason Holder. The 3rd wicket in the innings was of Alzarri Joseph with which Ben Stokes completed 150 wickets in Test cricket.

This wicket also helped Stokes to reach the all-round double of 4000+ runs and 150+ wickets in Test cricket. The all-rounder needed just 64 matches for this feat which makes him the 2nd fastest to the double only after Sir Gary Sobers (63). Sir Ian Botham is the other England player on this list which the former cricketer reached in 69 Test matches. Ben Stokes has come a long way in improving his batting and bowling during the last couple of years.

Fastest players to the double of 4000 runs and 150 wickets in Test cricket:

Ben Stokes completed the double of 3000 runs and 100 wickets in Test cricket during the 2019 tour of West Indies. He reached the milestone in 50 matches and stood 4th in the list behind Shakib Al Hasan (45), Sir Gary Sobers (48) and Tony Grieg (49). During their tour of South Africa at the start of the year, the No.2 ranked all-rounder went past 4000 Test runs. This helped him to achieve the double of 4000 runs and 100 wickets in 62 Test matches cricket.

Stokes reached the milestone in 62 matches and is the 3rd fastest to the milestone behind Sir Gary Sobers (48) and Jacques Kallis (61). Given the rate at which he has been achieving in the longer format of late, Ben Stokes could likely end up with around 300 wickets and at least 7000 runs with the bat. No player as of today has claimed over 300 Test wickets while scoring 6000 and more runs.

(Stats as on July 11, 2020)