Ben Stokes overtakes Brendon McCullum to be at the top of an elite list
Ben Stokes and James Anderson (Source: Twitter)
The English Test skipper has achieved a rare feat. Now he has 109 sixes under his belt, which is the most by any player in the history of the purest format of the game.
Stokes has left behind the man who has revolutionised the way England plays Test cricket, Brendon McCullum, who is currently the coach of the England team in the Test format. The duo of 'Baz' and Stokes has shown the world that Test cricket is not all about survival. England's new style of approaching a Test match has been named after McCullum and is called 'Bazball'.
Coming back to Stokes' record, there is only one other English name in the top 10 list of most number of sixes by a batter in Test cricket, Andre Flintoff (82 Sixes). Here are the top five players from the list.
- Ben Stokes (ENG): 109 Sixes
- Brendon McCullum (NZ): 107 Sixes
- Adam Gilchrist (AUS): 100 Sixes
- Chris Gayle (WI): 98 Sixes
- Jacques Kallis (SA/ICC): 97 Sixes
England in a position of strength in the first Test
Stokes achieved this record while batting against New Zealand in the second innings of the first Test of the series at Mount Maunganui. He scored 31 runs off 33 balls before being stumped by Tom Blundell off Michael Bracewell's bowling.
At the time of writing, Ben Foakes is batting at 33 off 53 balls with Ollie Robinson (1 off 1 ). England have already put on a total of 299 runs on the board for the loss of seven wickets. They are leading by 318 runs and will try and take it past 400 to make life hard for the hosts in the final innings of the match.
 "Probuddha Bhattacharjee")
