Ben Stokes believes some of the criticism of his England team has gone too far, but he would rather be called “nonsense” than “arrogant”.
The two-day defeat in the first Ashes Test in Perth last week has left many tough questions for the tourists, who have come under criticism for their pre-series preparation, poor shot selection and the decision not to send senior players to the pink-ball warm-up match in Canberra this weekend.
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Former Australian fast bowler Mitchell Johnson branded them “arrogant” in a scathing column for a Western Australian newspaper that had previously called Stokes a “cocky complaining captain”.
Speaking outside the first of five training sessions in Brisbane ahead of the second day/night Test on Thursday, Stokes took issue with those who questioned the character of his team.
Former Australia fast bowler Mitchell Johnson (Anthony Devlin/PA)
“I think the arrogance is maybe too much, but that's okay. We can handle the rough and the smooth,” he said.
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“Call us what you want. I'd prefer words like 'rubbish' but 'arrogant', I'm not sure about that. We didn't have the Test match we wanted but we were brilliant in parts of that game.”
UK fans who stayed up late to tune in and the several thousand who made the long journey Down Under were united in dismay and disappointment after England turned a strong lunchtime position on day two into a crushing defeat in just a few hours.
And Stokes insists the players feel the same pain.
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“Our work is result-oriented. We love our fans and we know we have an incredible fan base that comes out here and supports us,” he said.
“They want us to win, we want to win, we're absolutely desperate. They're absolutely desperate. We're all on the same page.”
“We know there will be a lot of disappointed fans in England after this first defeat. But this is a five-game series, we have four games left. We lost the first game – we are absolutely desperate to get home with the goal that was achieved before we started the series, which is to win the Ashes.”
