When reports surfaced that he had broken the England curfew with an ill-advised late-night drinking session in London (his drinking partner that night, Gus Atkinson, picked up two wickets for Surrey on Friday), Stokes immediately returned to the new home he had built at Wynyard, a short drive from Chester-le-Street. He has been training with Durham ever since.
Stokes did not expect to be playing against Northamptonshire in a Division Two game while England struggled to stay in the second Test against New Zealand but he looked content. He looked like one of the boys.
With cameras snapping, the 35-year-old jogged down the pavilion steps and took his place in the team huddle smiling and laughing. The smile faded as Northants piled on the runs – Durham dropped five catches – but the most important thing was Stokes showed no sign of injury or fatigue.
He should have had a wicket with the fourth ball of his first over, Ricardo Vasconcelos dropped by Ben McKinney at leg slip when he had scored only 13. He should have had another wicket in his final over before lunch, when Luke Proctor looked palpably lbw but, to Stokes’s dismay the umpire did not raise his finger.
It was hard work after that. Stokes bent his back, trying to rough up batsmen well settled at the crease. It was a gruelling day in the dirt but, as he always does, Stokes mucked in and finally got his reward with the wicket of George Bartlett late on, caught in the slips