Stokes tipped to be 2017's 'Zulu'

Australia legend Mike Hussey predicts England’s Ben Stokes will be the Champions Trophy player of the tournament, saying the allrounder can have the same seismic impact as Proteas heavy-hitter Lance Klusener did in the 1999 World Cup.

Stokes is perhaps the hottest player in the world after justifying his whopping $2.8m Indian Premier League auction price with a stunning debut season where he’s starred with both ball and bat.

The 25-year-old blasted a bruising century to win his Rising Pune Supergiant side a thriller against Gujarat Lions and has taken 10 wickets in as many matches as the lucrative tournament draws to a close with his team set to feature in the playoffs.

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His extraordinary form has Hussey, who returned last week from a three-week stint in India commentating the IPL, believing Stokes will be the standout player in the upcoming Champions Trophy that begins next month in England.

"I’ve watched him in India in the IPL and he’s playing really well,” Hussey told cricket.com.au.

"I feel like his batting has improved immeasurably, he’s now starting to really work it out.

"And with experience he’s getting better as a short-form bowler as well, he’s more confident in his own ability.

"He’s an incredible talent, incredible power.

"Once he starts figuring the game out in the mind, how he plays best and with a bit more experience it’s a really dangerous combination.

"All the assets are there and if his confidence is up and gets the opportunity to play well then he could get on a roll and be really hard to stop."

Australia leg-spinner Adam Zampa, Stokes’s Pune teammate, told cricket.com.au last week that the Englishman hits a ball harder than anybody he’s ever seen and that it was “scary” bowling to him in the practice nets.

Hussey, who played with and against some of the biggest hitters in cricket, says Stokes is “right up there” with the most damaging stroke-makers he’s witnessed in the two decades he’s been involved at the elite level.

But it was Stokes’ brutal display against the Lions during his unbeaten century that brought back memories of Klusener’s heroics in the 1999 World Cup in England where the man known as ‘Zulu’ was crowned the player of the tournament.

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Klusener was savage 18 years ago during South Africa’s ultimately heartbreaking campaign that ended in the epic and storied semi-final tie with Australia at Edgbaston.

The left-hander was practically unstoppable during the competition where he averaged 141, struck a tournament-high 10 sixes and maintained a strike rate of 122, which in the pre-Twenty20 era was considered stratospheric.

Klusener carried that electric form right through to the semi-final against Australia and after blazing two Damien Fleming yorkers to the long-off boundary in the final over, the southpaw needed only a single to send the Proteas to their first World Cup final.

As history shows, what followed was the most memorable mix-up in the history of one-day cricket, a run out that was perhaps the only way of stopping the rampaging South African.

Run out aside, Hussey says the devastating power Klusener displayed throughout that tournament and in particular the closing stages of the semi-final tie is being replicated by Stokes and is why the Durham product is his pick to be the best performer in the Champions Trophy.

"I commentated the game (Stokes) got a hundred in the IPL and he hit one at the end of the innings and I said it reminded me of Lance Klusener in the ’99 World Cup against Australia with Damien Fleming bowling,” Hussey said.

"It was exactly the same, he just crushed one through the off side and the deep fielder out on the fence had literally three metres to move to his left and he had no chance.

"He’s a really good cricketer cricketer and watching him at the IPL he looks really confident as a player."

Champions Trophy 2017 Guide

Squads: Every Champions Trophy squad named so far

Group A: Australia, New Zealand, England, Bangladesh.

Group B: India, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Pakistan.

Schedule

Warm-up matches

26 May – Australia v Sri Lanka, The Oval

27 May – Bangladesh v Pakistan, Edgbaston

28 May – India v New Zealand, The Oval

29 May – Australia v Pakistan, Edgbaston

30 May – New Zealand v Sri Lanka, Edgbaston

30 May – Bangladesh vs India, The Oval

Tournament

1 June – England v Bangladesh, The Oval (Day)

2 June – Australia v New Zealand, Edgbaston (D)

3 June – Sri Lanka v South Africa, The Oval (D)

4 June – India v Pakistan, Edgbaston (D)

5 June – Australia v Bangladesh, The Oval (D/N)

6 June – England v New Zealand, Cardiff (D)

7 June – Pakistan v South Africa, Edgbaston (D/N)

8 June – India v Sri Lanka, The Oval (D)

9 June – New Zealand v Bangladesh, Cardiff (D)

10 June – England v Australia, Edgbaston (D)

11 June – India v South Africa, The Oval (D)

12 June – Sri Lanka v Pakistan, Cardiff (D)

14 June – First semi-final (A1 v B2), Cardiff (D)

15 June – Second semi-final (A2 v B1), Edgbaston (D)

18 June – Final, The Oval (D)

19 June – Reserve day (D)