England vs India: How Ben Stokes conquered the demons in his mind to become his team’s all-weather talisman

And to think 12 years ago, former England coach Andy Flower had to tell him: “You don’t want to play for England. You just want to piss it up the wall with your mates, and have a good time”.

Stokes had broken the team curfew on the England Lions tour to Australia and returned at 5.30 in the morning. It seemed a real talent would be consumed by a self-destructive streak.

On a dry hot July day in London in 2013, Stokes sidled into the seats in the stands at Lord’s, and sat next to psychologist Mark Bawden. He had struggled through the season, was feeling down with his performance, so much so that his captain at Durham, Paul Collingwood, had texted him, ‘are you ok?’

But the boisterous tattooed-star wasn’t in a mood to expose his vulnerabilities to a teammate yet. Luckily, he realised the damage he was doing to himself, and dialled a psychologist.

England’s captain Ben Stokes, center, celebrates with teammates after the dismissal of the dismissal of India’s Akash Deep during the fourth day of the third cricket test match between England and India at Lord’s cricket ground in London, Sunday, July 13, 2025.(AP Photo/Richard Pelham)

Bawden soon sensed that Stokes was suffering from the ‘Bottle Bottle Bang’ syndrome’. In normal lingo, it meant Stokes was bottling up his emotions inside him, and it kept festering inside until it explodes. In March 2014, the frustration of a poor tour of the West Indies saw Stokes punching the locker in the dressing room, breaking his hand, which forced him to miss the ICC World T20. Bottle bottle bang.

More regular meet-ups with Bawden followed and Stokes was given a routine to manage his anger: go to the dressing room and pack up your kit bag. That packing process apparently has helped Stokes in calming down a few times.

Trust in his method

Bawden likes to classify his sporting subjects in two types: Assassins (thinkers) and Warriors (feelers). He puts Alastair Cook in the former, while Stokes falls in the ‘warrior’ category.

“One thing I try and do is de-myth confidence for people, who often think that confidence is having absolutely no doubt and unbreakable self-belief. In normal life, everybody experiences fear, anxiety and self-doubt,” Bawden once said. “My job is helping people realise that confidence isn’t the absence of fear or doubt, it’s trust in your method.”

More bad events shadowed Stokes, though. A pub fight that threatened his career, the death of his father, and the mental-health struggle, but slowly the tide turned. He became an ODI World Cup star, a T20 World Cup champion and above all, the Test captain with Brendon McCullum as head coach.

He took a break due to mental-health issues, returned to take over the Test captaincy and even Joe Root, the former captain, would be moved to say that he has never enjoyed cricket as much as he has done under Stokes.

That trust in his own method that Bawden talked about has meant Stokes doesn’t get too flustered if he ends up miscuing some of his shots. Or if the wickets don’t come despite him running in to bowl for a couple of hours. He keeps at it.

Like he did all day at Lord’s on a most bizarre day of Test cricket in recent memory. Jadeja refused to take a backward step. Stokes refused as well.

And so both teams were caught in a magnificent deadlock. Jadeja didn’t buckle but fate finally did, as a ball that was defended dourly by Mohammed Siraj somehow rolled past the batsman, rolled over the Indian dreams, clattered into the stumps and landed the match into Stokes’s laps.

There was no anger or frustration in the end, and Stokes will pack that kit bag in utter joy.