Where Does Ben Stokes Rank Among England’s Greatest All-Rounders?

A look at the greatest all-rounders to play for England, following news that Ben Stokes has retired from international cricket – William Hill News examine some of the legendary figures to represent the country.

England’s men’s cricket team has produced three of the sport’s greatest all-rounders. In some ways it’s England’s niche. For all the dark days English cricket has faced, fast-bowling all-rounders is the one area they stand head and shoulders above any other nation.

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In the last half-century, England have had three transformative, talismanic all-rounders that belong among the greatest ever in their role alongside Garry Sobers, Jacques Kallis, Kapil Dev, Imran Khan, and Richard Hadlee.

Ben Stokes

• Tests: 122
• Test batting average: 34.46
• Test bowling average: 30.98
• ODIs: 114
• ODI batting average: 41.22
• ODI bowling average: 42.39

Two Player of the Match awards in World Cup finals, perhaps the greatest Test innings ever played, a transformative captain, and countless other match-winning performances, Ben Stokes has been as significant as any cricketer in the 21st century.

Stokes’ ultra-public highs and lows are part of the legacy. A full-blooded cricketer in match action and training, the nightlife controversies, the punched lockers, and off-field turbulence are integral to Stokes’ story.

It’s unfair to reduce Stokes to World Cup final performances and Headingley. His career, despite some underwhelming averages, was so much more than that. He was a warrior, a bowler of lung-busting spells, a batter that could adapt to any situation, and a player adored by his teammates and fans alike.

Stokes took on the Test captaincy when England were at their lowest ebb, bringing a captivating style of play that led to historic wins over New Zealand, India, and Pakistan. It wasn’t enough to win the Ashes in Australia, but Stokes did deliver England’s first Test win down under in 15 years.

Despite the Headingley superhero show, his maiden century in Perth, and various other Ashes exploits, Stokes’ success in cricket’s oldest rivalry was limited. He won in 2015 as a newbie, but didn’t win another series against the Aussies, with a hard-fought 2-2 in 2019 followed by a frustrating repeat scoreline in 2023.

Stokes was relentlessly desperate to win. It’s part of the reason for his unimpressive career averages – he played the situation with bat and ball, whether that meant a long spell on a flat pitch, a rapid 35 to set a score, or digging in to see out the day.

For all his talent as a leader, batter, bowler, athlete, and fielder, it was Stokes’ belief, his determination to find a way to win, that really defined him as an international cricketer.

Ian Botham

• Tests: 102
• Test batting average: 33.54
• Test bowling average: 28.40
• ODIs: 116
• ODI batting average: 23.21
• ODI bowling average: 28.54

There will inevitably be a generational divide in the Stokes vs. Ian Botham debate. Botham had plenty of his own heroics throughout his career, headlined by the 1981 Ashes, and he was never far from controversy either.

Where Stokes could pull off game-changing acts from anywhere on the field, Botham’s influence as a fielder was limited to superb slip catching. His bowling record is far clear of Stokes overall, which reflects the difference in perception of Botham as a bowling all-rounder and Stokes as a batting all-rounder.

Botham had a knack for psyching out opponents with the ball in hand, leading to a long-standing record as England’s leading Test wicket-taker. With the willow, Beefy was destructive, but far from the technician or complete package as a batter that Stokes was across all three formats.

The contrast in their captaincy tenures was stark, too. Whether that should be taken into account for ranking their status as all-rounders perhaps requires a separate debate, but it does give an indication on how they were as leaders and suggests a difference in their teammate relationships.

Botham, for a generation of cricket fans, is an insurmountable great. He had the same number of centuries as Stokes in fewer Tests and far exceeded his wicket tallies, but there’s a chasm in their ODI records.

Stokes vs. Botham is destined to be one of those divisive sporting head-to-heads. The reality, though, is both players would find their way into an all-time England XI with Stokes at six and Botham at eight.

Freddie Flintoff

• Tests: 79
• Test batting average: 31.77
• Test bowling average: 32.78
• ODIs: 141
• ODI batting average: 32.01
• ODI bowling average: 24.38

Injuries truncated Freddie Flintoff’s career, but even if he played another five years, the numbers wouldn’t begin to cover what Flintoff meant to England. That’s a popular cliché when it comes to all-rounders, yet it is exaggerated further for Flintoff, a beloved character and hero of the 2005 and 2009 Ashes wins.

A higher bowling than batting average isn’t a good sign for a Test all-rounder. Flintoff only had five centuries and three five-wicket hauls. He’s got barely half as many Test runs as Stokes and sits 1,355 behind Botham.

Stokes, generally perceived as a batting all-rounder, had double as many five-wicket hauls as Flintoff in 43 more Tests. Flintoff’s white-ball bowling is miles clear of Stokes and Botham, but his Test strike rate is a long way off either of his predecessor or successor.

Flintoff, though, got crowds on their feet and led his teams from the front. Like Botham, a foray into captaincy wasn’t successful, but Flintoff’s public persona and personality was widely adored, and was summed up by the iconic photo consoling Brett Lee at Edgbaston in 2005.

Either side of the 2005 Ashes, Flintoff was a world star. He was arguably the best fast bowler on the planet for a two- or three-year period, and during that purple patch, his batting even shone in the top six.

The technique was far from perfect, and he was nowhere near Stokes’ overall calibre as a batter, yet Flintoff was must-watch whenever he came to the crease.

His final bow on the international stage was the 2009 Ashes, a series he played pretty much on one knee. Fittingly, Flintoff mustered a match-winning five-fer at Lord’s and delivered the series-swinging run out of Ricky Ponting at the Oval. It was an appropriate end for a man that reignited the Ashes after decades of Australian dominance.