Ashes 2023 | 'Stokes is Someone Like Dhoni': Ricky Ponting
England's Test captain nearly pulled off a miracle win in the second Ashes 2023 Test at Lord's Test against Australia, slamming a 214-ball 155, where eventually the hosts lost by 43 runs. Stokes struck 93 off 108 balls during his remarkable 108-run seventh wicket stand with Stuart Broad, chasing 371.
Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting, who is regarded as one of the greatest ever batters, has hailed Stokes' ability to win matches single-handedly and compared the England skipper with former India leader MS Dhoni.
Interestingly, Dhoni and Stokes play for the same Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise, Chennai Super Kings (CSK), and also featured for the now defunct Rising Pune Super Giants (RPSG) together.
Speaking to ICC Review, Ponting explained that Stokes' Test numbers do not do the player justice.
Stokes is someone like Dhoni: Ponting
"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."
"We have all over the years really only sort of judged cricketers on their numbers and their stats of what their average is and how many wickets they take. If you looked at Ben Stokes in that light only, it doesn't do him full credit to the player that he is as he averages 35 (36) with the bat and 32 with the ball. So those numbers alone don't sort of put him in the highest echelon of players."
Stokes, 32, has played 94 Tests for England, scoring 5,928 runs and claimed 197 wickets since 2011.
Meanwhile, Stokes will marshal England in the third Test tomorrow at Leeds, with Australia leading the Ashes 2023 series 2-0.
 "Vishal Mehra")
