Following Ben Stokes’ glowing remarks about his team’s strategy for playing Test cricket in the Ashes 2023 documentary, Tim Paine took a swipe at Ben Stokes and England.
Interestingly, in last year’s Ashes, England dropped the opening two Test matches but recovered well to tie the five-match series 2-2.
Nonetheless, the Australians succeeded in keeping the urn. England has played flamboyantly, embracing the ultra-aggressive Bazball style, under the leadership of Stokes and guidance of Brendon McCullum. Though they are now wallowing at the bottom of the World Test Championship (WTC) standings for the 2023–2025 cycle and failed to make it to the finals last year, it appears that their visually striking style of play hasn’t always produced the intended outcomes. In the ECB documentary, Stokes was heard declaring that cricket fans who have had the good fortune to watch his Test team play will always remember them.
“I will say that I believe it was taken a little out of context because he was speaking in a changing room and it was a larger speech,” Paine said on SEN Tassie Breakfast.
England must acknowledge that they are a “below-average” Test team, according to the former cricket player turned analyst. According to Paine, cricket fans would not remember the Three Lions for anything remarkable that they are doing.
But there’s this persistent notion that they’re totally altering the rules and pulling off this incredible feat that people will never forget. They’re not. When it comes to the World Test Championship, you’re dead last. You won’t be a team that fans will remember seeing, and you won’t be performing something incredibly impressive that we haven’t seen before. You guys play mediocre cricket. Paine said, “I believe they need to get their mind around the fact that they’re actually a below-average cricket squad right now.
Also Read: We will win the WTC Final and the Champions Trophy under Rohit Sharma’s leadership: Jay Shah
What did Ben Stokes say in the documentary?
The ECB had shared a clip of Stokes’ motivational speech in the dressing room ahead of the fifth Test match at Kennington Oval, London. However, the Australian media outlet Fox Sports took a dig at Stokes’ remarks on social media. But the legendary allrounder darted back by saying that it rained for two days and before the disappointment got to the team he just wanted to cheer up his teammates to keep England in high spirits.
Said this to the team who had watched it rain for 2 days when we had our foot on your throats, just tried to cheer up the disappointment tbh,but anyways rent free and all that 🫡 https://t.co/ULRZ4WITOq
— Ben Stokes (@benstokes38)
“Everything we’ve done up until now isn’t going to stop because we haven’t managed to win the urn back. The reward for our work isn’t what we get, but what we become. And what we have managed to do is, we’ve managed to become a sports team that will live forever in the memory of people who were lucky enough to witness us play cricket,” Stokes told his teammates in the dressing room following the disappointment of not getting an outright result in Manchester.
India
