Ben Stokes and the value of the dive

SportLocation Cricket Desk · 10 Sept 2026

Ben Stokes’ montage opens with a full-length stop in the deep, and that is the sharpest reminder of what he adds beyond the big scores.

Ben Stokes starts this montage the hard way: flat out on the turf, arms stretched, trying to cut off a rolling ball before it reaches the rope.

It is the sort of fielding effort that changes the mood of a Test without needing a wicket or a boundary. The dive is low, committed and central, with the ball still just ahead of him as he reaches.

The rest of the clip moves on to the batting side of Stokes — the raised bat, the Lord’s hundred, the Headingley roar — but the opening frame does the best job of setting the tone. This is a player who can alter a match in more than one discipline, and the fielding is part of that package.

If you want one image from the sequence, it is the dive: white shirt, outstretched hands, and a ball still in play. That is the moment that gives the montage its bite.