'Welcome back, Ben Stokes, in all sorts of ways'

On his return to Christchurch, Ben Stokes cannot have dreamed New Zealand would be so hospitable.

England have the first Test by the scruff of the neck thanks largely to a very un-Kiwi-like performance.

The home side were wasteful with the bat in their first innings, then shambolic with their catching. Eight drops. England have the upper hand, New Zealand butter fingers.

Stokes was the beneficiary of perhaps the worst drop of the lot, a complete goober by opposite number Tom Latham at short cover when the England skipper had 30.

He went on to make 80. Although he missed out on becoming the first England captain to make a century in the city of his birth since Michael Atherton in Manchester in 1994, this was a Stokesian step in the right direction.

The Pakistan tour - and a 2-1 series defeat - was a hugely difficult time for Stokes. Flat out in his bid to get fit after a hamstring injury, he was wiped out by the time he came back into the side for the second Test.

In that match Stokes suffered the indignity of being stumped with his bat in a different post code. The 33-year-old also gave a rare show of frustration on the field when England crucially dropped two catches in an over.

The third and deciding Test was worse. Stokes was tactically inert as Saud Shakeel was marshalling Pakistan's lower-order rescue act. Supposedly fit, the all-rounder did not bowl himself. His second-innings dismissal, playing no shot to be lbw to Noman Ali, was the sort of brain freeze that comes after a whole box of ice pops.

Out-of-sorts on the field, Stokes was dealing with worse off it. During the second Test he was told his house had been burgled with his wife Clare and two children at home. It was Clare who persuaded Stokes not to leave the tour.

Stokes being Stokes, he was hard on himself when he reflected on the Pakistan trip.

"It's amazing what you can think about when you're just sitting there watching TV," he said before the Christchurch Test. "You start realising stuff, then pick up the phone, speak to a few people and talk it out.

"I did physically drain and ruin myself, which definitely had a mental impact. Being the leader of this team, I can't take myself into that sort of area ever again, focusing on myself so much. Not only does it have an impact on myself, but also has a massive impact on the team."

When England reassembled in Queenstown, Stokes cleared the air with his troops, by which time he had already travelled to Christchurch to surprise his family.

In this part of the world, Stokes is used to fending off questions about his Kiwi links, but is happy to admit this city is special. His mother Deb and brother James still live here. His cricketing life began at Merivale Papanui, a 15-minute drive from Hagley Oval.

In training he tossed around a rugby ball and dummied past England assistant coach Marcus Trescothick. Stokes was a handy player as a youngster.

He declared himself ready to play a full part as a bowler and was into the action on the first morning. His opening two overs were rusty, going for 19 runs, but gradually the cobwebs were blown away. Stokes would have had a wicket had he appealed for an undetected edge off Rachin Ravindra.

Stokes' captaincy was somewhere near its creative best. Trusting Shoaib Bashir, he somehow cajoled four wickets out of the off-spinner on a ground where no spinner has taken more in a Test innings.

Runs were the final piece of the puzzle. While the century would have been the fairytale, it was the manner of Stokes' batting that was so encouraging.

For his reputation as a slayer of bowling attacks, Stokes is at his peak when he grows into an innings.

The maniacal slogging at the beginning of his tenure as captain was a lighting of the way for his England team-mates. Since then, since Stokes owns four of the 11 slowest half-centuries in the Bazball era.

This was one of them - 50 from 105 deliveries. When England plundered 140 runs before lunch on Saturday, Stokes contributed only 41. In partnerships of 159 with Harry Brook, 63 with Gus Atkinson and 40 with Brydon Carse, Stokes was a minority shareholder.

Overall, his strike-rate of 55 was the third-slowest score in a score of at least 80 by an England batter since Stokes became captain. It was also his own best since the third Ashes Test at Headingley almost 18 months ago.

As with the runs scored by Stokes' vice-captain Ollie Pope at number six on day two, there will be questions over whether the skipper has found a new home in the batting order. This is the first Test Stokes has been carded to bat at seven since 2015.

If wicketkeeper Jamie Smith is to remain in the middle order when he returns from paternity leave, the status quo of Stokes at six and Smith at seven feels the right fit.

Stokes is better when he takes his time. His 2019 career-definers in the World Cup final and Headingley Ashes Test were slow burners that ignited into devastating explosions.

In his short career, the prodigious Smith looks to have all the gears of an F1 car and can start in any of them. He seems more suited to countering with the tail (which, by the way, with Atkinson at nine and Carse at 10, is looking prehensile).

For now, Stokes and his team are closing in on a much-needed Test win, possibly soon enough to leave an extra day of enjoying Christchurch.

Welcome back, Ben Stokes, in all sorts of ways.