CAPTAIN BEN CAN CEMENT LEGACY

Beat India & Aussies and he'll be an all-time great leader

- by JEREMY CROSS

BEN STOKES is reluctant to admit he could be embarking on the defining period of his time as England captain.

The 34-year-old knows his legacy is already secure following an astonishing career at the highest level.

He is not the sort of leader to worry too much about what people think of him, or how he will be judged in years to come.

But the magnitude of the next six months, which will see England take on India in a five-Test home series, before heading to Australia looking to win back the Ashes, is not lost on Stokes (inset, below).

He said: “For me, it is (easy to ignore talk of legacy), because I don’t tend to worry myself generally about what other people are going to say, or think about what I've done as a captain at the end of it.