{"id":315850,"date":"2025-11-29T05:53:23","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T05:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/315850\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T05:53:23","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T05:53:23","slug":"england-captain-ben-stokes-dismisses-arrogant-label-amid-criticism-of-ashes-test-loss-to-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/315850\/","title":{"rendered":"England captain Ben Stokes dismisses ‘arrogant’ label amid criticism of Ashes Test loss to Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ben Stokes has rejected accusations his England squad is arrogant, while maintaining their aggressive approach to cricket will not change during the Ashes.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

In the days since Perth, England greats Geoff Boycott and Michael Vaughan have slammed the tourists’ performance.<\/p>\n

The English media called the squad “gutless” and “self-destructive” and accused the team of playing with “arrogance” and “entitlement”.<\/p>\n

Retired Australian quick Mitchell Johnson also described England as “arrogant” this week, adding they “risked serious embarrassment” with their attitude.<\/p>\n

But speaking in Brisbane on Saturday as England continued preparations for the day-night second Test, Stokes said the claim was off the mark.<\/p>\n

“You can call us rubbish, call us whatever you want to,” Stokes said.<\/p>\n

“We didn’t have the Test match that we wanted to. Again, we were great at passages of that game.<\/p>\n

“I think arrogant might be a little bit too far \u2026 I’d rather words like rubbish, but arrogant \u2014 sometimes you’re a bit like, ‘Oh, I’m not too sure about that one’.”<\/p>\n

Khawaja slates Perth pitch<\/a><\/p>\n

Under-pressure Australia opener Usman Khawaja is not swayed by the ICC’s top rating for the pitch in the first Ashes Test in Perth, labelling it a “piece of shit” for the second straight year.<\/p>\n

England has been steadfast in its aggressive approach to cricket since Brendan McCullum took over as coach in 2022.<\/p>\n

And while Stokes conceded his team needed to absorb pressure better, he insisted he stood by the side’s tactics.<\/p>\n

“Could we have been better at executing what we wanted to do? Definitely,” Stokes said.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“But also, we do know that we could have definitely been a lot better in certain areas throughout that Test match.”<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

But he defended the decision not to feature the squad’s frontline players.<\/p>\n

“It’s in Canberra, which is a different state. We’re here in Brisbane,” Stokes said.<\/p>\n

“The conditions are obviously going to be completely different to what we’ve got coming up.”<\/p>\n

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