(Reuters) – Ben Stokes thrives on his battles with some of the sport’s most competitive players as it tends to bring out the best in the feisty England all-rounder, who is hoping to recover quickly from his nightmare end to the World Twenty20 tournament.
Stokes, who has scored three test centuries, has clashed with several players over the past year, most notably an ongoing feud with West Indies all-rounder Marlon Samuels.
“I’m always thinking about the private battle, even in the field. I’m always trying to be better than the other person I’m against,” the 24-year-old told the Times newspaper yesterday.
“There are guys that you look at and you want to really bowl at them or bat against them, certain guys who really get your juices flowing. They tend to be similar characters to me: (Australia batsman) David Warner, for example.
“I love playing against these guys who have the same attitude to the game that I have. It’s always been there, that competitive instinct… I just want to win.”
By claiming four wickets and five catches at the World Twenty20 in India, Stokes played a crucial role in England’s run to the final in Kolkata on April 3, especially with his bowling at the death.
However, in the last over against the West Indies, who needed 19 runs to clinch their second T20 World Cup, Stokes was hit for four successive sixes by Carlos Brathwaite, ending England’s own hopes of a second triumph in disastrous fashion.
