England captain Ben Stokes has acknowledged the criticism following his team’s dramatic defeat in the first Ashes Test in Perth, saying he is willing to accept being called “rubbish,” but feels describing the team as “arrogant” goes too far. The English side faced widespread backlash after collapsing in just two days. Despite holding a strong position on day two, leading by 105 runs with nine wickets in hand, England lost 9 wickets for 99 runs, allowing Travis Head to guide Australia to an eight-wicket victory. Former players and pundits criticised both England’s approach during the match and their preparation ahead of it. Questions were raised over a low-intensity three-day warm-up against the Lions and a two-day pink-ball match before the day-night Test in Brisbane. Images of players golfing added to the perception that England were not fully focused on one of the most anticipated Ashes tours in years. Speaking at England’s first media session since the Perth defeat, Stokes said criticism is part of the job but not all of it is justified. “Look, you can call us rubbish, call us whatever you want,” he said. “We didn’t have the Test match that we wanted. We were great in passages of that game… but I think arrogant might be a little bit too far.” He added, “But that’s okay. We’ll take the rough with the smooth. I’d rather words like ‘rubbish,’ but ‘arrogant,’ I’m not so sure about that.” Stokes also defended England’s decision to leave most first-team players out of the PM’s XI match at Manuka Oval, with only Jacob Bethell, Josh Tongue, and Matthew Potts featuring. The rest of the squad has been based in Brisbane since Wednesday. “I do understand it,” Stokes said, addressing criticism that England had shown disrespect to the fixture. “We have a pink-ball match coming up in Brisbane, and we have an opportunity to play some pink-ball cricket. When you look at it like that, I don’t want to say it makes sense, but I totally understand it.” He explained that the location, Canberra, and different playing conditions were also factors. “You take all the factors into consideration, the pros and cons, whatever it may be. We then discuss that and decide what we think is the best preparation. We have a few more days off than we planned after that Test. We had to go away and ask how we use these next few days wisely in order to be prepared for what it will be like in Brisbane,” Stokes said. Saturday’s training session ran close to three hours before being interrupted by rain. Thunderstorms have disrupted the week in Brisbane, with more expected, potentially affecting both teams’ preparations. Australia head into the second Test as clear favourites. They have won 13 of their 14 day-night Tests, with their only loss coming against West Indies at the Gabba in 2024. Mitchell Starc, fresh from a 10-wicket haul in Perth, remains the biggest threat under lights, boasting 81 pink-ball wickets at an average of 17.08. Despite the odds, Stokes urged his team and supporters to stay confident. “We did some amazing things in that Test match. The way we bowled in the first innings, and we were effectively 100 for 1, and put a score on the board that we felt was definitely defendable. We all know there were moments where we could have been a lot better to gain even more advantage.” He added, “The important thing we need to do as a team and as individuals is learn from it. We have identified those moments, spoken about them as a group, and that’s what we need to do. Could we have executed better? Definitely. But we have a mindset of playing to put the opposition under pressure while absorbing it ourselves.” Stokes also emphasised staying true to England’s style of cricket despite mistakes. “Sometimes decisions don’t work the way you want. That’s the key for the rest of this tour—staying true to the beliefs of how we play our cricket, while knowing we could have done better in certain ways.” Looking ahead, he said, “We know there’ll be a lot of disappointed fans in England after that first defeat. But it’s a five-game series, we’ve got four games to go, and we’re absolutely desperate to achieve our goal from before the series even started, which is to win the Ashes.”
