Stokes Is The ‘Special One' For England

I intend to call him that for the rest of his career: Botham

The accolades keep coming for Ben Stokes after his astonishing match-winning innings in the third Ashes Test against Australia with icon Ian Botham anointing him English cricket’s ‘Special One’.

Until Stokes lit up Headingley on Sunday with his series-saving 135, Botham’s titanic 149 not out in the second innings of the 1981 Test against the Australians had been the benchmark.

A full 28 years later, Stokes’ unbeaten knock secured England an unlikely one-wicket win in the third Test and in the process kept the Ashes alive by levelling the series at 1-1.

Botham, who is chairman of Durham where Stokes plays his county cricket, told the Daily Telegraph Stokes’s bold performance against the odds had earned him the special sobriquet.

In the oven