Botham Sings Record-Breaker Stokes' Praises

Sir Ian Botham believes Ben Stokes is "all round a better player" than he was at the same age.

Stokes' 258 in the drawn second Test with South Africa saw him take Botham's record for the fastest double hundred by an England Test player.

And there are more landmarks to come for England's "dominant male", according to the Sky Sports expert, whose statistics at the age of 24 actually compare favourably to Stokes'.

Botham had more centuries, catches and 60 more wickets than the Durham pretender after 21 Tests, but he said: "What I did was yesterday's news, what he did is today's news. That's the way it is.

"I think as a player full stop he is probably better than I was at 24, I don't know. He's certainly up there.

"He will feel untouchable at the moment. His confidence will be oozing and that will be good for the team as it will ooze onto the team and they will all pick up on that.

"It's a little bit like being in the jungle - the dominant male lion: the rest feed off it. That's how he'll be. He'll be the dominant male in that side for a few years to come."

The obvious area of improvement for Stokes is his bowling, and a run of three wickets in four Tests has pushed up his average to almost 42, but Botham expects that figure to fall.

"I'm sure he'll take the new ball for England at times, but at the moment there's healthy competition for it," he said. "His bowling can only get better because he has got all the attributes.

"He's got pace, he can swing the ball, he can reverse it, he can bowl orthodox...and of course he is terrific fielder, close to the bat, in the covers or mid-wicket, backward point, on the boundary.

"He is not a jack of all trades and master of none, he is actually probably a master of the three most important assets you need and that's batting, bowling and fielding."