{"id":290612,"date":"2025-11-30T01:05:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T01:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/290612\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T01:05:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T01:05:11","slug":"ben-stokes-reveals-huge-regret-ahead-of-second-ashes-test-between-england-and-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/290612\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Stokes reveals huge regret ahead of second Ashes Test between England and Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ben Stokes has said he \u201cgot it completely wrong\u201d with his now-infamous \u201chas-been\u201d remar<\/a>k, admitting he regrets the phrasing and accepts responsibility for inflaming criticism of England after their bruising two-day defeat against Australia in last weekend’s Ashes Test in Perth.<\/p>\n

The England captain, speaking for the first time since the opening Test collapse, acknowledged that his words helped feed perceptions of arrogance surrounding his side, even as he rejected claims that England carried themselves with an inflated sense of importance.<\/p>\n

Stokes\u2019 concession comes amid sustained scrutiny of his team\u2019s preparation and performance in the aftermath of Australia\u2019s eight-wicket win in the Ashes curtain-raiser. <\/p>\n

England squandered a commanding position and were bowled out twice in fewer than 70 overs, and their subsequent decision not to send any of the Perth XI to Canberra for a pink-ball fixture only intensified the backlash. <\/p>\n

Former fast bowler Mitchell Johnson branded them \u201carrogant\u201d and \u201ccocky Poms\u201d, warning they were courting \u201cserious embarrassment\u201d.<\/p>\n

Stokes, however, drew a line between legitimate criticism and what he believes to be unfair claims about attitude. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou can call us rubbish, call us whatever you want. We didn\u2019t have the Test match that we wanted to,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cArrogant might be a little bit too far, but that\u2019s OK. We\u2019ll take the rough with the smooth. I\u2019d rather words like \u2018rubbish\u2019, but \u2018arrogant\u2019, I\u2019m not so sure about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheFive things to know about the Ashes | PA<\/p>\n

The England captain admitted that part of the storm had been created by his own verbal misstep before the warm-up match against the England Lions, when he referred to sceptical former captains as \u201chas-beens\u201d.<\/p>\n

That comment, inevitably, was swiftly seized upon. <\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone knows it was a slip of the tongue,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got the words I said there completely wrong. I think everyone knows that. <\/p>\n

\"England<\/p>\n

Mark Wood could miss the second Ashes Test between England and Australia<\/p>\n

| REUTERS<\/p>\n

“\u2018Has-beens\u2019 is a horrible word. It\u2019s the only thing that managed to come out of my mouth in that moment. I\u2019m going to be one of those one day. It\u2019s a complete wrong wording.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stokes spoke as England began their preparations in Brisbane for the second Test, which will start on December 4 at the Gabba.<\/p>\n

Persistent rain curtailed training at Allan Border Field, while Mark Wood, the only absentee from the optional session, is set to miss the Test after a recurrence of a left-knee issue.<\/p>\n

Three squad members who did not feature in Perth – Jacob Bethell, Josh Tongue and Matthew Potts – have joined the Lions for the Canberra match.<\/p>\n

The decision not to send any front-line players to the capital has been criticised by Michael Vaughan and Jonathan Agnew, though defended by Michael Atherton and Alec Stewart.<\/p>\n

Stokes said England took into account the pitch, conditions and team morale before opting against making the three-hour journey. <\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/p>\n

Ben Stokes says England are determined to win the second Ashes Test against Australia<\/p>\n

| REUTERS<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a pink-ball match coming up in Brisbane, and we have an opportunity to play some pink-ball cricket,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there\u2019s obviously a lot more to it than just that. You take all the factors into consideration\u2026 We had to go away and ask how we use these next few days wisely.\u201d<\/p>\n

England had been well placed at 65 for one in their second innings in Perth, leading by 105, before collapsing in a flurry of loose attacking strokes.<\/p>\n

Stokes conceded his side should have been more precise.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of execution, could we have been better at executing what we want to do? Definitely,\u201d he said. \u201cSometimes when you go out there and make a decision, it doesn\u2019t always pay off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the disappointment, Stokes insisted England remain united in their aim to regain the Ashes and says they’re ‘absolutely desperate’ to reign supreme next time out. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ben Stokes has said he \u201cgot it completely wrong\u201d with his now-infamous \u201chas-been\u201d remark, admitting he regrets the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290613,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,217,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-290612","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-cricket","9":"tag-sport","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}