England’s cricket team has faced a lot of criticism after their poor performance during the tour of India earlier this year. Many former players said the team didn’t take the matches seriously and spent too much time playing golf between games instead of training. England’s early exit from the Champions Trophy and struggle in the ICC World Test Championship added to the pressure.
On the other hand, test captain Ben Stokes has defended the team. In an interview with Sky Sports, he strongly disagreed with the claim that the players are not serious or hardworking. “When you hear comments saying we don’t train hard enough, we’re more bothered about golf, we don’t work hard enough, it’s just complete and utter [rubbish],” said Stokes.
“You’re not going to be able to be an international sportsman for a long period of time if you don’t have a work ethic. Everyone that walks into the Test team, the white-ball team, their work ethic is incredible,” he added. “They’re professional athletes, it’s their job.”
“There’s reasons as to why we do things in the way that we do it” – Ben Stokes
Stoke also explained that people outside the team don’t always understand the training methods, “There are reasons as to why we do things in the way that we do it, and those reasons are for us to speak about together in the dressing room,” he said. “There is a reason to everything that we do.”
He added, “What we try and do is take any extra pressure off the shoulders of people. When you see us doing certain things that people might think, ‘Why are we doing that?’, there’s a reason.”
England will start the new World Test Championship cycle with the match against Zimbabwe. After that, they will face a tough series against India and Australia. Stokes has been recovering from ha amstring injury, is eagerly waiting to return to his best.
“In terms of my role as a player, that full seamer, batting at six, trying to dominate every situation… is what I want to get back doing out on the field. I know I’ve done it before. It’s something I’m very confident in myself I can do,” he said.
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