Ben Stokes once again displayed his extraordinary talent under pressure as he played a sensational innings against Australia at Lord’s. Despite England’s eventual loss, Stokes’ remarkable knock of 155 against a formidable Australian pace attack left a lasting impression. Former Australian cricketer Ricky Ponting was full of admiration for Stokes, comparing his performances in testing conditions to those of Indian legend MS Dhoni.
Ponting commended Stokes for consistently finding himself in match-winning situations and delivering when it mattered the most. Drawing parallels to Dhoni’s role in T20 matches, Ponting highlighted Stokes’ ability to excel in the latter stages of Test matches, which is a rare and special quality. He noted that very few players in the history of the game have been able to fulfill such a crucial role and emerge victorious.
“I think any international player is under pressure anytime they walk out to play, but Ben batting in the middle order or later order like he does, probably finds himself in more match-winning opportunity situations than some others might”, Ricky Ponting said on ICC Review.
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“The first one that comes to mind is maybe someone like a Dhoni, who’s there at the end in a lot of T20 games, and finishing games, whereas Ben’s doing it at the end of Test matches, and there’s not, probably not many, many players through the history of the game that have found themselves in that sort of role and are there at the end winning games, and especially as a captain,” he added.
As England’s current Test captain, Stokes has consistently demonstrated his prowess in high-pressure situations. Ponting’s comparison to Dhoni, a master finisher in limited-overs cricket, is a testament to Stokes’ exceptional skills and his impact on the game.
“I thought and everyone probably thought he could do it again because we’ve seen it happen before, but this was probably, slightly more runs that they were chasing (in 2019)”, Ricky Ponting said.
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“In the back of the back of everyone’s minds, I think once it started playing out the way that it was and how many similarities there were to Headingley in 2019…Steve Smith dropped him…and he was dropped on 116 by Marcus Harris at Headingley, So those sort of ghosts of the past kept coming back out,” he added.
