Unlucky 33? Under par Stokes while batting first time as skipper now struggling in second attempt as well

England skipper Ben Stokes is struggling, especially in second innings of the team's batting where he has scored three consecutive scores of 33 in three Tests during the ongoing series against India. Stokes scored 33 each in Leeds, Birmingham and now at Lord's as India are left to chase 135 on the last day (Jul 14) of the ongoing third Test. The struggle is not just in the series but has been going on for an year almost - October 2024 to be precise.

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Since October 2024, Stokes has played nine Tests but has managed to score 383 runs in 15 innings at an average of 27 against his Test average of 35. He has managed just one fifty in those innings with a best of 88. In four Tests played in 2025 season, Stokes has a best score of 44 with 172 runs in seven innings at an average of touch above 24. Clearly, the England captain is struggling.

How has Stokes performed in second innings batting his team?

Every since Stokes took over captaincy, he has performed well when batting second time in a Test instead of the first one. As a captain in Bazball era, Stokes has scored 1,830 runs in 59 innings of 35 Tests at an average of 33 with two hundreds and nine fifties.

Both of his hundreds and seven of nine fifties have come while batting for the second time in Tests and so are 1,198 runs out of the total he has scored in Bazball era - June 2022. Stokes averages nearly 43 while batting for the second time but his reputation is going down and fast.

With is first time batting performance already under par, it is time for Stokes - the batter - to pull up his game and England need it now more than ever as they look to win the ongoing five-Test series against India to kickoff the World Test Championship (WTC) cycle 2025-27 on a positive note.