England captain Ben Stokes has highlighted responsibility and ruthlessness as key to the revival of England cricket after his side’s awful performances in the Ashes.
Australia defeated England in the fifth Test by five wickets, drawing head coach Brendon McCullum’s side’s horror tour Down Under to an end, leaving the series with a 4-1 return.
Stokes, however, has maintained optimism on his side and the coaching set-up, but also recognises that potential ‘ruthlessness’ lies ahead.
‘Too much 3/10 cricket’
The England captain spoke on many factors in England’s Ashes struggles, but inconsistency remains a critical part of their failure, and a much-needed work-on going forward.
“I think for a while teams have understood how to operate against us,” Stokes told TNT Sports.
“When we get into a situation with the bat where things look easy, opposition sides are doing a lot of the same things to us now.
“We need to work out what we do in those situations. We play too much 3/10 cricket, and if you play like that the likelihood is it’s not going to fall your way in big moments.
“I have seen it a lot in this series and in other series before.”
Reset and reflect
Questions remain and continue to linger about McCullum’s coaching style and the higher-ups’ approach to running England cricket.
However, Stokes has called for calmness and to take the time post-Ashes to reset and consider multiple factors.
“How we develop is by being pretty honest and straightforward,” the England captain said. “You don’t progress unless you have those conversations.
“I’ve been young and had some things thrown at me that I didn’t quite like, but I can look back now and know that it was told to me for the right reasons.
“We did some unbelievable things as a team in the first couple of years [under McCullum], not only in terms of results but getting the best out of people who might not have known they were as good as they were.
“Now it’s about making sure we do that consistently.”
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Promises of ‘ruthlessness’
“That’s where it’s up to me, Brendon, Rob – the guys that sit above the players – to put together something that shows this is what we expect,” Stokes continued.
“I have a ruthless side to me if people aren’t willing to meet those expectations.”
Credit to the hosts
Stokes did give Australia significant credit, saying that they played some “very, very good cricket”.
“You’ve got to compliment them on that and give them respect, but we’ve also had a lot of moments where we’ve done a lot of the damage to ourselves,” he said.
“In a massive series like the Ashes, playing against a huge team, if you make mistakes as a team it’s just not going to end well.”
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‘Be big and be brave’
Looking ahead, Stokes has suggested that there is plenty of accountability and responsibility to go around his team and staff, and that bravery and reflection is what is required looking ahead to the 2026 calendar.
“I can do a much better job as leader, as captain. We made some big mistakes out here as players, I made big mistakes as captain, and you’ve just got to be big and brave enough to tell yourself that as an individual,” he asserted.
“It’s about taking responsibility and ownership, really understanding where we’re at, if we want to take ourselves to the next level again.”
Stokes and company will travel to Sri Lanka next for three ODIs and three T20s from January 22 to February 3, looking to revive confidence and consistency ahead of the highly anticipated T20 World Cup on February 8.
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Adam Peaker 
Newsjustnews writers 
Carmela Calling