NASSER HUSSAIN: Formidable Ben Stokes deserves his place alongside Jacques Kallis and Sir Garfield Sobers - as a player as well as a captain, he remains vital to England
- Stokes went past the 200 Test wicket mark on day two against West Indies
- Also scoring 6,000 Test runs, he has shown that he is up there with the greats
- Now he is back bowling, he helps provide important balance to England's side
Ben Stokes' record as a Test all-rounder is incredible and getting to the double of 6,000 runs and 200 wickets on Wednesday placed him in illustrious company.
Sir Garfield Sobers and Jacques Kallis were cricketers of a similar ilk.
Both would get into their respective West Indies and South Africa teams as frontline batsmen or bowlers.
Some that played against Sobers would tell you he was the best player they had seen as a batter alone.
Stokes being in that category alongside them is a phenomenal achievement and the fact he is bowling again is so positive for England, because it provides this team with balance.
Ben Stokes has shown he is up there with the great Test all-rounders after passing 200 wickets
Also scoring 6,000 Test runs, he is now in illustrious company with his incredible record
Being in a category alongside Jacques Kallis (left) and Sir Garfield Sobers (right) is a phenomenal achievement
At times last winter when he played as a specialist with the bat, he went into his shell a little bit.
But when you've got two strings to your bow, there is a greater licence to attack and now he's back bowling, I don't think it will be long before we see him replicating that positive intent of the past and scoring runs again - he's too good a player to keep down for long.
More importantly, though, he adds something to the attack not just as a part-time, hold-up-an-end bowler but a genuine wicket taking option.
How nice it has been to see him running in and delivering the ball without a grimace this week. My only concern is that he doesn't overdo it. He bowled an eight-over spell in the first innings and trumped it with one of 10 on the second evening.
Personally, I used to hate facing bowlers like him that leaned away to the off side. West Indies' own Courtney Walsh used to do it.
The game of cricket is about angles and, to both left handers and right handers Stokes causes problems.
As we saw with the wicket that took his Test tally to 200, as a left-hander Kirk McKenzie thought the delivery was going across him, but because Stokes has a really strong wrist position, he retains the ability to get the ball to go either way.
As a right-hander, Mikyle Louis could have used the Lord's slope to leave the ball but Stokes' angle encouraged him to play it.
So, he ended up playing at a slightly wider delivery, nicked it and that was that.
Equally, when it reverse swings, as it might do later in the summer, the angle he creates makes him one of England's best exponents of the art.
He's versatile. His bowling statistics tell you exactly how versatile.
The dismissal of McKenzie was his 100th in home Tests. At that point, he also had 100 to his name away from home.
Stokes is versatile, with his bowling statistics of 100 home wickets and 100 away showing that
Now he is back bowling, he provides excellent balance to and England team that he is vital to
Stokes is certainly not someone who can only perform in the UK and if England are going to win in Australia next year, they're going to need him bowling some of those hard overs as part of a five-man attack.
Here in the UK, having Stokes as your all rounder means England can play the off-spinner Shoaib Bashir.
With all the wet weather recently, if he was unable to bowl, they may have just gone for four seamers, or bowled Bashir in the first innings when conditions demanded seam. Stokes being one of four also allowed the debutant Gus Atkinson to deal in hostile, short spells.
And in reaching yet another career landmark on day two of this match, the 33-year-old emphasised something we already knew - he's such a vital cricketer for England.
