{"id":196494,"date":"2025-12-21T13:54:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T13:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/196494\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T13:54:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T13:54:09","slug":"stokes-vows-to-remain-england-captain-as-mccullum-admits-regret-over-ashes-preparations-ashes-2025-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/196494\/","title":{"rendered":"Stokes vows to remain England captain as McCullum admits regret over Ashes preparations | Ashes 2025-26"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Ben Stokes stressed his commitment to leading England after losing the Ashes inside 11 days, Brendon McCullum<\/a> gave his first admission of regret. Poor preparation has been widely blamed for this failed tour of Australia and, in that regard, the head coach was prepared to hold his hand up.<\/p>\n

Speaking after the 82-run defeat at Adelaide Oval<\/a> that took Australia 3-0 up with two Tests in Melbourne and Sydney to come, Stokes offered a simple \u201cabsolutely\u201d when asked if he had the energy to continue as captain but played down England\u2019s threadbare warm-up period.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat dream that we came here with is now over, which is obviously incredibly disappointing,\u201d said Stokes, at the ground where he made his debut 12 years ago. \u201cI hate living in hindsight because you can never change what you have done. At the end of the day, it\u2019s what you do out there that counts. We\u2019ve not been able to stand up to what Australia have thrown at us.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCullum, however, took a different view, accepting that a white-ball tour of New Zealand and one intra-squad match on a slow club ground in Perth may have contributed to their downfall. Having kept things light for England\u2019s previous five away tours under his watch and won the first Test every time, he simply believed it would work again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure there will be plenty of questions asked and rightfully so,\u201d said McCullum. \u201cWe haven\u2019t got everything right and I haven\u2019t got everything right as a coach either. Ultimately [as head coach] you are responsible for how you get your side ready and prepare them. I had conviction in our methods, not just leading into the first Test but also in between Tests.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look back now and think: \u2018Did we need more leading into the first and did we need less leading into the second?\u2019 We lost 3-0 so you would probably say there was room for change there. Again, you put your hand up as a coach and say you might not have got that right. I felt it would give us our best chance because it has previously. Sitting here 3-0, it didn\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben Stokes shakes hands with his Australia counterpart, Pat Cummins. The England captain said the hosts had \u2018out-executed us in all three facets of the game\u2019. Photograph: Gareth Copley\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Stokes was prepared to admit shortcomings was with the ball, at least, his pace bowlers bursting out of the traps on the opening day in Perth but then struggling for discipline and going at more than 4.3 runs per over. Australia\u2019s attack, led by the otherworldly Mitchell Starc but supported by others, successfully suppressed England\u2019s previously attacking batting lineup.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just can\u2019t be so poor with your execution as consistently as we have been over these first three games,\u201d said Stokes. \u201cAnd particularly with the ball, because when you\u2019re off [target] here, it gets punished. They\u2019ve just completely out-executed us in all three facets of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before Pat Cummins got his Australia players in a celebratory huddle for a rendition of True Blue \u2013 the folk song that was played before the match to honour the victims of last Sunday\u2019s Bondi terrorist attack \u2013 he revealed that his comeback in Adelaide may yet prove to be a one-off<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Having discovered the early signs of a stress fracture in his lower back in July, Cummins underwent an accelerated rehabilitation to play in Adelaide and saw it pay off with six wickets across the match. The Boxing Day Test may come too soon to go again, however, while Sydney is also up in the air.<\/p>\n

Cummins said: \u201cWe had a pretty aggressive buildup [for me] knowing there was an Ashes there to be won. Now it might be a case of \u2018job done\u2019 and reassess. I doubt I\u2019ll play Melbourne and we\u2019ll have a chat about Sydney. While the series was alive it was: \u2018Let\u2019s take on the risk and have a crack at it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

One player set to miss the rest of the series is Nathan Lyon after confirmation of a hamstring injury suffered while diving to stop a boundary on the final morning. Like Cummins, the off-spinner\u2019s return in Adelaide after being benched in Brisbane was a success, returning match figures of five for 147.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Ben Stokes stressed his commitment to leading England after losing the Ashes inside 11 days, Brendon McCullum…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-196494","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}