Ben Stokes has rejected accusations his England squad is arrogant, while maintaining their aggressive approach to cricket will not change during the Ashes.
England’s two-day defeat in Perth prompted heavy criticism after it was bowled out twice in the space of 67.3 overs in the first Test.
The decision not to play a pink-ball warm-up match ahead of the second Test at the Gabba has also been met with condemnation, given one was available in Canberra this weekend.
In the days since Perth, England greats Geoff Boycott and Michael Vaughan have slammed the tourists’ performance.
The English media called the squad “gutless” and “self-destructive” and accused the team of playing with “arrogance” and “entitlement”.
Retired Australian quick Mitchell Johnson also described England as “arrogant” this week, adding they “risked serious embarrassment” with their attitude.
But speaking in Brisbane on Saturday as England continued preparations for the day-night second Test, Stokes said the claim was off the mark.
“You can call us rubbish, call us whatever you want to,” Stokes said.
“We didn’t have the Test match that we wanted to. Again, we were great at passages of that game.
“I think arrogant might be a little bit too far … I’d rather words like rubbish, but arrogant — sometimes you’re a bit like, ‘Oh, I’m not too sure about that one’.”
England has been steadfast in its aggressive approach to cricket since Brendan McCullum took over as coach in 2022.
And while Stokes conceded his team needed to absorb pressure better, he insisted he stood by the side’s tactics.
“Could we have been better at executing what we wanted to do? Definitely,” Stokes said.
“But again, we’ve got a mindset of playing the game [that] is looking to put the opposition under pressure, while also trying to absorb that.
“Sometimes when you go out there and you make a decision, it doesn’t always play out or work in the way that you want it to.
“And that’s what the key for the rest of this tour is, is making sure that we stay true to our beliefs of how we play our cricket.
“But also, we do know that we could have definitely been a lot better in certain areas throughout that Test match.”
Stokes also said he could understand why critics believed Test players should have featured in this weekend’s pink-ball match in Canberra against the Prime Minister’s XI.
But he defended the decision not to feature the squad’s frontline players.
“It’s in Canberra, which is a different state. We’re here in Brisbane,” Stokes said.
“The conditions are obviously going to be completely different to what we’ve got coming up.”
AAP