England national cricket team captain Ben Stokes has made a bold statement, saying that critics may call the English team “rubbish”, but calling them “arrogant” may be a bit much.
After saying that England are not an arrogant team, Ben Stokes also revealed why he decided not to release key players for the tour match against Australia’s Prime Minister’s XI.
I’d prefer a word like ‘nonsense’, but ‘arrogant’, I’m not so sure about that – Ben Stokes
The opening match of the Ashes 2025-26 Test series was hosted by the Perth Stadium and both England and Australia displayed brilliant cricket which was thoroughly enjoyed by the spectators.
However, the match was completed within two days, with 847 balls bowled making it the second shortest completed Test in Australia. Despite the game ending early, the ICC judged the pitch on offer to be “very good”.
Batting first, the English team was all out for 172 runs in 32.5 overs and then bowled out Australia for 132 runs in just 45.2 overs and then scored 164 runs and set a target of 205 runs.
After this, something happened for which England was not prepared as Travis Head opened the innings and surprised Ben Stokes and led his team to victory by 8 wickets.
England faced heavy criticism following the defeat, with many calling them arrogant and Ben Stokes addressed this, speaking for the first time since the conclusion of the Perth Test.
“Look, you can call us rubbish, call us whatever you want. We didn’t have the Test match we wanted. We were great in parts of that game… but I think the egos may have been a bit much,” Ben Stokes was quoted as saying by ESPN Cricinfo.
“But that’s OK. We’ll treat the tough with the tough, too. I like words like ‘bullshit,’ but ‘arrogant,’ I’m not so sure about that.”
The circumstances are going to be completely different from what we are going to face – Ben Stokes
The Three Lions had a great opportunity to play a pink-ball match against Australia’s Prime Minister’s XI before the Brisbane Test, but they decided to send only three unused team members for the game.
Justifying his decision, Ben Stokes said that the situation is going to be completely different in Canberra and Brisbane. He elaborated:
“I understand it. We’ve got a pink-ball game coming up in Brisbane, and we’ve got an opportunity to play some pink-ball cricket. When you look at it that way, I don’t want to say it makes any sense, but I completely understand it [that view],
“But obviously there’s more to it than that. It’s right there, in Canberra, which is a different state to Brisbane. The conditions are going to be completely different to what we’re about to see.”
“You take into account all the factors, the pros and cons, whatever. Then we discuss that and decide what is the best preparation. After that Test we have a few more days off than we had planned. We had to step away and ask how do we use these next few days wisely to be ready for what happens in Brisbane.
“We schedule everything as if the Test match is going to last for five days. It didn’t last for five days, so we had planned three days of training, and obviously that had to be changed. That’s why now we have a long preparation for this pink-ball game.”
We did some amazing things in that test match – Ben Stokes
Ben Stokes was also proud of his team’s efforts in the Perth Test and said he had identified things they could have done better. He said:
“We did some amazing things in that Test match. The way we bowled in the first innings, and we were [effectively] 100 for 1, and put a score on the board that we felt was definitely defendable.
“We all know, and look back on it, that there were moments in that game where we could have been much better to help us get even more of an advantage. The important thing we need to do as a team and as individuals is learn from it. We’ve identified those moments, talked about them as a group, that’s what we need to do.”
Also Read: Ravi Bishnoi’s next IPL team leaked by Yuzvendra Chahal on Instagram Live
