Ben Stokes, like many travelling England fans, had a pre-lunch session to remember on the second day at Barbados, coming within two blows of becoming the first ever Englishman to hit a century before lunch from a standing start.

Stokes went to lunch on 89 off 92 balls, with 11 fours and four sixes. That would be impressive enough in itself, but Stokes actually took his time to get set, compiling 23 off 55 before exploding. His last 66 runs in the session came off 37 balls. Stokes has previous for astonishing assaults, with his 130 runs before lunch at Cape Town in 2016 sitting third on the list of most runs scored by an Englishman in a session.

There was a six that cleared the Three Ws stand, and then an 18-run over off Alzarri Joseph which began with three fours and ended with perhaps the shot of the tour so far, a straight hit that flew just to the right of the press box. That blow brought up 5,000 Test runs, putting Stokes into an elite category of all-rounders, with only four other players having reached the twin milestones of 5,000 runs and 150 wickets. Their names – Jacques Kallis, Garry Sobers, Ian Botham and Kapil Dev – speak to the calibre of player Stokes may end up being considered among, if he isn’t already. Should Stokes make it to 6,000 runs, only Kallis and Sobers will have taken more wickets and scored more runs.

Stokes was particularly severe on Joseph and Veerasammy Permaul, hitting 55 off 45 bowled by the pair. His four sixes took him past Viv Richards’ tally of 84 maximums, joint with Chris Cairns on 87, and one behind Brian Lara. With Adam Gilchrist only 20 sixes ahead in first place, Stokes could end up with more sixes than any other Test cricketer. Considering the mood he’s in, he may have one eye on getting there today.

The innings was a timely one from a personal point of view, with Stokes’ form having dipped from its 2019 and 2020 peak. He hit five centuries in a 12-month period then, but this marked his highest score since that hot streak. There are plenty of mitigating factors, with injury and a mental health breaks playing their part, but Stokes’ form was of particular concern during the Ashes, averaging 23.60 with the bat and 71.50 with the ball.

He spoke of feeling like he’d “let a lot of other people down” before the first Test, and railed against those who, during the Ashes, had “slated us, suggesting we didn’t care, we weren’t trying or even worse that we’d somehow given up” after it, having got through his fourth heaviest Test workload with the ball in the interim. There are few England fans who think that Stokes owes them anything, however, especially when he plays innings like he has done today in Barbados.

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