take an unassailable 3-0 lead<\/a>, took another hit on Wednesday when pace spearhead Jofra Archer was ruled out of the rest of the series with a side strain.<\/p>\nEngland cricket chief Rob Key on Tuesday pledged to investigate the drinking claims, while the England and Wales Cricket Board said in a statement it was intent on establishing the facts.<\/p>\n
Stokes, whose team have already lost the Ashes, said his main concern was the players\u2019 mental welfare and to ensure they were ready for the Melbourne Test starting Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m obviously aware of the reports and everything circulating around right now,\u201d Stokes said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy main concern is my players, and how I handle this moment is the most important thing to me.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe welfare of everyone in there, and probably some certain individuals as well, is the most important thing to me right now as England captain.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s never a nice place to be in when not only the media world, but also the social media world, is piling on top of you,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a very tough place to be in as an individual. As an individual, when you know you\u2019ve got the support of the people who are sort of leaders, in a sense, it\u2019s very good to know that you\u2019ve got that support.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked directly whether his teammates had \u201cdone anything wrong in Noosa\u201d, Stokes replied: \u201cI\u2019ve just answered everything there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stokes calls for focus as spotlight increases on England<\/p>\n
England went to Queensland tourist resort Noosa after losing the first two Tests in Perth and Brisbane heavily.<\/p>\n
They spent several days on the sand and around restaurants and bars before travelling to Adelaide, where they lost the third Test as Australia retained the Ashes.<\/p>\n
Britain\u2019s Daily Telegraph reported that \u201cafter drowning their sorrows after the Brisbane Test, it is no exaggeration to say some, certainly not all, players drank for five or six days\u201d.<\/p>\n
It added that players \u201cdid nothing outrageous in Noosa\u201d but there was concern over the level of drinking, with England\u2019s professionalism already under the microscope after their limited preparations.<\/p>\n
![\"England](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-2253206626-1766573133.jpg\")
England captain Ben Stokes, right, and coach Brendon McCullum are both under pressure following the side\u2019s failures in Australia [Gareth Copley\/Getty Images]<\/p>\n
Stokes conceded that when a side was losing, there would be scrutiny, and \u201crightly so\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you are 3-0 down you don\u2019t really have a leg to stand on but we\u2019ve got two games of cricket to play. That\u2019s what we have to focus on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe haven\u2019t won a game in Australia for a long, long time.\u201d<\/p>\n
England have gone 18 Tests since winning a match in Australia, dating back to their last series victory there in 2010-11.<\/p>\n
Their capitulation in this series in 11 days of play is the joint second quickest in more than a century, since the 1921 Ashes was completed in eight days.<\/p>\n
Making matters worse, Archer will take no further part in the tour, with Gus Atkinson replacing him in Melbourne.<\/p>\n
The under-performing Ollie Pope paid for his poor form at number three, with Jacob Bethell taking over in the only other change.<\/p>\n
England\u2019s Test woes in contrast to Australia\u2019s Ashes high<\/p>\n
Bowling with the \u200cwicketkeeper standing up to the stumps can bruise a fast bowler\u2019s ego, \u200dbut Australia paceman \u200dScott Boland said Alex Carey\u2019s stellar glovework in the ongoing Ashes series has helped him grow comfortable with it.<\/p>\n
Carey\u2019s wicketkeeping masterclass has been a key factor in Australia\u2019s unassailable lead in the five-match series, and the \u206034-year-old was particularly impressive in the second Test at the Gabba, where he stood \u200bup to Boland and Michael Neser.<\/p>\n
With the wicketkeeper breathing down their \u200dnecks, English batters were pretty much confined to the crease, which meant the home bowlers did not really need to vary their length.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve just never really bowled to the keeper up to the \u200dstumps before,\u201d Boland \u2060told reporters ahead of the fourth Test.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone wants to be a fast bowler, and you don\u2019t really like the keeper up to the stumps.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I\u2019ve seen over the last month how effective it is and how still I can keep their batters by Alex being up to the stumps.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wicketkeepers typically stand farther back from the stumps when facing fast bowlers to give \u200bthemselves more time to react to the high speed \u200cand bounce of the ball, reducing the risk of missed catches.<\/p>\n
Even from close range, Carey showed tremendous reflexes to pouch a thick edge from Ben Stokes after the England captain had nicked a Neser delivery \u200cin the second innings.<\/p>\n
Dismissals like that gave confidence to Boland that he could continue bowling his edge-inducing length balls regardless \u200cof where Carey stood.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just need to trust that \u2060the length balls I bowl to try and nick guys off is the same length I bowl when he\u2019s up to the stumps or back,\u201d the 36-year-old said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Gabba was pretty bouncy and he \u200cwas up to the stumps for a bit of it and catching balls above waist-high and I bowled a bouncer and he caught that, so I have full trust \u200din him up there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former Australia wicketkeeper Ian Healy called Carey \u201cclearly the best in the world\u201d, while teammate Steve Smith termed him a \u201cfreak\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Captain Ben Stokes said protecting England players\u2019 welfare was his top concern amid claims of excessive drinking on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1296,428,1721,591,50,217,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-333697","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-asia-pacific","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cricket","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-sport","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333697","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=333697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}