How Ben Stokes, who was once scolded for his attitude by Andy Flower, has become the saviour of Test cricket
On a dry hot July day in London in 2013, Ben Stokes sidled into the seats in the stands at Lord’s, and sat next to the psychologist Mark Bawden. He had struggled through the season, was feeling down with his performance, so much so that his captain at Durham, Paul Collingwood, had texted him, ‘are you ok?’ He wasn’t. But he didn’t want to share his heartache with his team-mates as he didn’t want to short-change his boisterous tattoo-star image. But he realised he had to open up to someone, and he decided Bawden was the go-to man. Bawden, who has worked with a few English teams, heard him out before giving his verdict that Stokes was suffering from ‘Bottle Bottle Bang’ syndrome’. In normal lingo, it meant Stokes was bottling up his frustrations inside him, and it keeps festering inside until it explodes. He had to lighten up, else the wretched rut would continue. It had been a poor summer mentally and the shot-making ability was on the wane. And the year had started...