{"id":393530,"date":"2026-01-05T17:07:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T17:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/393530\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T17:07:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T17:07:11","slug":"ben-stokes-unlikely-to-face-reprimand-for-ashes-spat-with-labuschagne-ashes-2025-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/393530\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Stokes unlikely to face reprimand for Ashes spat with Labuschagne | Ashes 2025-26"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was hard to know whether it was a message to Australia or his own bowlers. Ben Stokes<\/a> signed off from a frustrating second evening in Sydney by swapping words out in the middle with Marnus Labuschagne. Seemingly reacting to something said by Labuschagne as the hosts made a rapid reply to England\u2019s 384, Stokes was heard saying \u201cshut the fuck up\u201d at the end of the over he had just bowled. He then walked over and put an arm around his opponent\u2019s shoulder to continue the exchange.<\/p>\n

As the umpires, Ahsan Raza and Chris Gaffaney, moved in, Stokes walked away after giving Labuschagne a squeeze. As per the ICC code of conduct, the England captain could be reprimanded under clause 2.12 regarding \u201cinappropriate physical contact\u201d.<\/p>\n

It was fairly trivial, much like India\u2019s Akash Deep putting an arm around Ben Duckett after dismissing him at Edgbaston in August. That incident led to no further action, with Jeff Crowe, the ICC match referee here, probably deciding the same.<\/p>\n

Stokes enjoyed the final say in his following over by dismissing Labuschagne for 48, but Australia closed on 166 for two. Travis Head\u2019s unbeaten 91 had taken to England\u2019s wayward bowlers in the final session, with Stokes, two for 30, clawing things back on his own.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want the goss as well,\u201d said Joe Root<\/a>, when asked about the incident, the impact of his 160 having been whittled away by Head\u2019s rapid-fire reply.<\/p>\n

Michael Neser, struck on the arm by Stokes with the final ball of the day, said: \u201c[Labuschagne] has a knack \u2026 he\u2019s such a strong competitor and can get under your skin. It\u2019s just Marnus for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

The outburst from Stokes was not the only thing Root found himself asked about, with Jamie Smith\u2019s much-discussed dismissal by Labuschagne<\/a> the trigger for England\u2019s lower-order collapse of five for 61.<\/p>\n

Joe Root celebrates reaching his century during day two of the fifth Ashes Test. Photograph: Philip Brown\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Smith fell with the second new ball on the horizon, slapping a long hop from Labuschagne\u2019s part-time medium pace to deep extra cover, Justin Langer, the former Australia head coach, called it \u201cone of the dumbest shots you\u2019ll ever see in Test cricket\u201d<\/a>, while Alastair Cook simply labelled it \u201cterrible\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Root said: \u201cIt was about maximising that 10-over period ahead of facing that new ball. Twenty runs could be the difference later on down the line. So there was method behind what we\u2019re trying to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to move the game forward all the time. And when it doesn\u2019t come off, it can look a certain way. But you\u2019re never playing to get out. You\u2019re playing to score runs.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a batter, your job is not to survive, it\u2019s to score runs. You can\u2019t win games just surviving. You have to score more runs than the opposition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Root had been exemplary, scoring his 41st Test century and 24th since the start of 2021 \u2013 the latter 14 more that the next best in this period \u2013 and moving within 2,000 runs of Sachin Tendulkar\u2019s all-time record of 15,921 in Test cricket and showing no loss of appetite.<\/p>\n

Asked if, aged 35, he could see himself making the next Ashes tour in 2029-30, Root said: \u201cWho knows? We\u2019ll see. I would love to. But we\u2019ll see how things unfold in time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was hard to know whether it was a message to Australia or his own bowlers. Ben Stokes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393531,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-393530","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cricket","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}