England vice-captain Ben Stokes admitted that England couldn’t live up to expectations in the ongoing Ashes series. The hosts took an unassailable lead of 3-0 with a comprehensive win at Melbourne and the prospect of whitewash is looming large on the visitors with two tests to go.
In this series, Ben Stokes made a comeback to international cricket. Earlier the all-rounder took a break to focus on his mental health as he was also recovering from a finger injury.
“We’ve shown in small stages that we’re capable”- Ben Stokes
In this series, Ben Stokes has produced ordinary numbers so far as he scored 101 runs in 6 innings so far with an average of 16.83 and could manage to pick only 4 wickets, and to make things worst he conceded runs with an economy of 5.
“Pretty average to be honest. Just getting back out there from a personal point of view, being back out amongst the lads has been great, but from a team point of view we are 3-0 down and that is what matters,” Ben Stokes spoke to Mirror Sport in an interview.
However the 30-year old doesn’t think if he requires any tweak in his technique.
“I’ve not done much to change it, but I’d much rather that the results were going our way,” he added.
Stokes pointed out that England showed some spark in patches but couldn’t sustain it for longer periods of time. For England, skipper Joe Root and Dawid Malan are the only two batters who crossed the 50-mark in the series.
“We’ve shown in small stages that we’re capable. We’ve had some really good partnerships with the bat and the ball. We know we can compete. But we’ve not done it for long enough or consistently enough and Australia have managed to get through those periods where we’ve had the upper hand. It’s about doing it for longer than that and putting some pride back into the badge,” he stated.
England will be without their head coach Chris Silverwood in the Sydney Test starting on January 5. As the coach was tested positive for Covid-19. England batting coach Graham Thorpe will take over the proceedings in his absence.
Also read Cricket Australia CEO Nick Hockley Latest To Test Positive For COVID-19