- Stokes shared that his family home had been broken into during Pakistan tour
- The England captain would have been informed ahead of the deciding Test
- Visitors left Pakistan having blown a 1-0 lead to end the series in defeat
No wonder Ben Stokes cut such a distracted figure during last week’s third Test in Pakistan.
After the England captain took to Instagram on Wednesday to break the shocking news that his home had been burgled by masked intruders while his wife Clare and children Layton and Libby were in the house and he was away playing cricket, events in Rawalpindi assumed a very different perspective.
It still seems likely that his state of mind that week was partly to do with the fact that he hadn’t yet regained full faith in his body after returning from a serious hamstring injury. Otherwise he would surely have brought himself on to bowl when England were running out of wicket-taking options on the second afternoon.
But could that have entirely explained his demeanour before, during and after a game which started only seven days on from the break-in at his home in Castle Eden near Hartlepool?
Usually razor-sharp in the field, Stokes was chasing the Test as Salman Agha and the Pakistan lower order turned a losing position into a series win in the space of 24 hours. Normally on the ball and to the point in his media interactions, he was instead terse and unreflective.
Ben Stokes revealed on Wednesday that his family home had been burgled during his time in Pakistan with England
The captain shared details of the valuables stolen in a bid to catch the burglars on social media
And as England collapsed on the third and final morning, slipping to only their second series defeat out of nine under the leadership of Stokes and Brendon McCullum, he was lbw shouldering arms to Pakistan spinner Nauman Ali – as uncharacteristic a shot as it is possible to imagine.
If his mind wasn’t entirely on the cricket, who can blame him? It is one thing to lose personal items of sentimental value described by Stokes as ‘irreplaceable’. It is quite another for the theft to take place while your young family are at home – and you are nearly 4,000 miles away, powerless to help.
‘Thankfully, none of my family came to any physical harm,’ he wrote. ‘Understandably, however, the experience has had an impact on their emotional and mental state. All we can think about is how much worse this situation could have been.’
While Stokes would not have known during the third day of the second Test due to the time difference, it will have weighed on his mind ahead of the decider
The robbery took place on the evening of October 17, the third day of the second Test at Multan. With Pakistan four hours ahead of the UK before the clocks went back at the weekend, Stokes would not have heard the news during the hours of play.
But he had plenty of time to mull over the horrific nature of the incident before the deciding Test began the following week. It is understood that at no point did he address the whole team about events back home.
After England lost the series on October 26, McCullum made a point of saying that how disappointed Stokes was. He added: ‘It’s our job to make sure we wrap our arms around him and help him along the way.’
With England due to fly to New Zealand in three weeks for yet another tour, those sentiments may be more pertinent than ever.
