Skipper Ben Stokes defends England’spreparation for the Ashes cricket series in Australia
PERTH: Skipper Ben Stokes has defended England’s lack of warm-up matches ahead of the first Ashes cricket test against Australia in Perth beginning Nov. 21.
England is aiming to break a 14-year winless run in Australia. Stokes and fellow veteran Joe Root have never won a test match in Australia, and there’s no survivors in this squad from England’s 2010-11 series win.essentially an England A team, starting on Thursday at Lilac Hill.
That decision has drawn criticism from Ashes greats on both sides such as Ian Healy, Ian Botham and Geoffrey Boycott.
But Stokes believes England’s preparation will be more than sufficient.
“There’s obviously state (domestic first-class) cricket going on at the moment,” Stokes said Wednesday. “Time has got to be taken into consideration as well. Some of our squad members were playing the (white-ball) series in New Stokes also said cricket’s “jam-packed” schedule makes it more difficult to prepare for a five-match test series than “10, 15, 20, 30 years ago.”
“We put a lot of time and effort into how we prepare for every series, and that hasn’t changed with this one,” Stokes added. “Come the 21st of this month, we know that we would have done everything possible that we could have done.”He’s the greatest English batter that the nation’s seen,” Stokes said. “He’s been in phenomenal form over the last two, three years. He’s not come out here to score a 100 in Australia, he’s come out here to contribute to the team.”
Stokes said his team should not be overwhelmed playing in Australia.
“Coming to Australia for the Ashes is a lot different than anything else when you’re playing,” he said. “There’s a lot more that goes on away from the cricket itself.”
Root, who is the No. 1-ranked batter in test cricket and is the second-highest scorer in the format all-time, has not scored a century in 14 tests in Australia.
Australia has won 5-0, 4-0, and 4-0 the last three times England has traveled Down Under for the most anticipated series in world cricket.
England’s only preparation in Australia for this series is a three-day match against the England