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 questioned 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.”
Fans who stayed up late to tune in from the UK and several thousand who made the long trip Down Under were united in dismay and frustration after England turned a strong position at lunch on day two into a thumping defeat inside just a few hours.
And Stokes insists the players feel the same pain.
“It’s a results-based job that we’re in. We love our fans and we know we’ve got an incredible fanbase who come out here and support us,” he said.
“They want to see us win, we want to win, we’re absolutely desperate. They’re absolutely desperate. We’re all on the same wavelength.
“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. We’ve lost the first one – we’re absolutely desperate to come home with that goal from before we even started the series, which is to win the Ashes.”
