Ben Stokes believes some of the criticism of his England team has gone overboard – but would rather be called “rubbish” than “arrogant”.
A two-day defeat in the first Ashes Test in Perth last week led to plenty of difficult questions for the tourists, who have come under fire for their pre-series preparations, loose shot selection and the decision not send senior players to this weekend’s pink ball warm-up match in Canberra.
Former Australia pace bowler Mitchell Johnson branded them “arrogant” in a strongly worded column for the West Australian newspaper, which had previously branded Stokes “cocky captain complainer”.
Speaking before the first of five training sessions in Brisbane before Thursday’s day/night second Test, Stokes took issue with those who question the character of his side.
“I think arrogant might be a little bit too far, but that’s OK. We’ll take the rough with the smooth,” he said.
“Call us whatever you want. I’d rather words like ‘rubbish’, but ‘arrogant’, I’m not so sure about that. We didn’t have the Test match that we wanted to but we were great in passages of that game.”
Stokes also moved to iron out relations with some of the high-profile pundits, including two of his predecessors Michael Vaughan and Lord Botham. Responding to comments questioning their pre-series preparations in his first media outing of the trip, Stokes referred to “has-beens” – a loaded phrase which has refused to go away.
He explained: “Everyone knows it was a slip of the tongue. I’ve explained that off the record.
“Has-beens is a horrible word but it’s the only thing that managed to come out of my mouth in that moment. God, I’m going to be one of those one day! I got the words I said completely wrong.”
Stokes described himself as “shellshocked” in the aftermath of the whirlwind loss but was calm and measured as he reviewed events a week on.
He admitted his leadership had been found wanting in the face of Travis Head’s match-clinching century and highlighted the areas his batters could improve following the costly second-innings collapse that took England from firm favourites at lunch to losers by stumps.
“I know there were areas in that fourth innings where I could have been a lot better as captain,” he admitted.
“I am the person who makes decisions about how we go out there and operate and I am the one who gives the plans to the bowlers. On reflection of myself, I wasn’t as clear as I normally am in those moments.
“The next time we’re potentially in a situation like that I’ll be in a better place to handle something that happens so quickly. “We’re always looking to put the opposition under pressure, but then also understand the moment we need to absorb the pressure that is being piled on to us from the opposition. We know that we are very, very good at the first bit and we all know there are areas that we can be better doing the second bit.
“We don’t shrug it off and think, ‘next time hopefully it will happen’. We are professional sportsmen, we pride ourselves on how we go about things and we pride ourselves on the results of the games we’re playing in.
“We know that there’ll be a lot of disappointed fans in England after that first defeat but it’s a five-game series. We’ve got four games to go.”