England captain Ben Stokes defends his team in the buildup to the Brisbane Ashes Test
Ben Stokes refuses to accept his England side is arrogant despite their crushing Perth defeat, insisting critics can "call us rubbish" instead.
Call us rubbish but don’t call us arrogant.
That was the message from English captain Ben Stokes at his side’s first Brisbane training run at Allan Border Field before Thursday’s second Test at the Gabba.
The two-day Perth Test loss rocked England to the core and saw the side branded arrogant for not being prepared to modify its cavalier Bazball tactics.
It’s been a pile-on but Stokes, while not defending his side’s performance, defended its attitude.
“Look, you can call us rubbish, call us whatever you want — we didn’t have the Test match we wanted,’’ Stokes said on Channel 7.
“We were great in passages from that game. I think ‘arrogant’ might be a little bit too far, but that’s OK.
“We will take the rough with the smooth. I’d rather words like rubbish. But arrogant, I am not sure about that.’’
Rather than have a team crisis meeting Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum have had selective chats in a bid to turn the ship.
“We have talked about it and moved on. We had some good conversations around the group. It wasn’t a sit down and all get-together. That’s not the way we do things. It’s about choosing opportunities and picking off individuals at the right time.
“If you get in an environment where you are all sitting around in a huddle, people might just say things for the sake of it.
“We’ve all done the reflecting and that kind of stuff in Perth and now we are in Brisbane and our mind is on what we need to do here.’’
Stokes said he could understand people being critical of the decision not to send Test players to the two-day pink ball match against the Prime Minister’s XI in Canberra but he stood by it.
“I totally understand it. But there is obviously a lot more to it. There’s where it is, in Canberra, which is in a different state to Brisbane ... the conditions are going to be completely different to what is coming up.’’
Originally published as England captain Ben Stokes defends his team in the buildup to the Brisbane Ashes Test
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