STOKES LOVING SWEET CLARITY

Onus is on the Kiwis not us says Ben

- Dean Wilson

BEN STOKES is revelling in the mayhem his brave new captaincy style is causing. 

Not in his clear, calm and focused dressing room, but in the opposition’s as they try to get to grips with a team who are playing a whole new ball game.

And in the case of New Zealand, out to avoid a fifth successive defeat to Stokes, their inability to react with a knockout blow of their own has left them scratching their heads, just like England did Down Under last winter.

Stokes returns tonight to Wellington, where he lived for a couple of years before emigrating to England as a 12-year-old, with a seventh Test win in a row up for grabs.

Not since Michael Vaughan’s team won all seven in the summer of 2004 have England enjoyed such a run, and we all know where that led the following year.