Addressing the touring press pack regarding his “has-been” comments, Stokes said: “Everyone knows it was a slip of the tongue. I’ve explained that off record. I got the words I said there completely wrong.
“I think everyone knows that, I just never got asked about it on camera for me to say I got my words wrong. ‘Has-beens’ is a horrible word.
“It’s the only thing that managed to come out of my mouth in that moment. God, I’m going to be one of those [a former player] one day. It’s completely the wrong wording and I think everyone does know that it’s not at all what I meant.”
As well as their cavalier first Test batting, the tourists decision to head straight to Queensland, knocking back the chance for extra match practice in Canberra was largely condemned, while former Ashes tormentor Mitchell Johnson described Stokes’ side as “arrogant” and “risked serious embarrassment” throughout the summer with their ultra-aggressive approach.
“Call us rubbish, call us whatever you want,” Stokes said in response.
“We didn’t have the Test match that we wanted but we were great in passages of that game.
Joe Root at training in Brisbane on Saturday.Credit: Getty Images
“I think arrogant might be a little bit too far, but that’s OK. We’ll take the rough with the smooth. [I’m] OK with words like rubbish, but arrogant? Sometimes you’re like, ‘I’m not so sure about that one’.”
Stokes said England went “back to the drawing board” in terms of their second-Test preparation once presented with an extra three days after their loss in Perth.
He said he understood the criticism that followed the decision to send England’s first-choice XI straight to Brisbane rather than joining the pink-ball affair in Canberra, with players conducting individual fitness training with the extra few days opened up in their schedule.
England will have two afternoon training sessions at the Gabba and two evening practices under lights to prepare for day-night Test conditions.
Loading
“I do understand it [the criticism],” Stokes said. “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 just like that, I don’t want to say it makes sense, but I totally understand it [that view].
“But there’s obviously a lot more to it than just that. There’s where it is, in Canberra, which is a different state from Brisbane – the conditions are going to be completely different to what we are going to have coming up.”
England’s dramatic second-innings collapse, and Travis Head’s blistering century, overshadowed the fact the tourists looked likely winners at lunch on day two in Perth.
Despite widespread calls to temper their aggressive approach to Australian conditions, Stokes insisted England remained committed to the strategy of all-out attack they have adopted under Brendon McCullum since 2022.
“Could we have been better at executing what we wanted to do? Definitely,” Stokes said.
“But again, we’ve got a mindset of playing the game which is looking to put the opposition under pressure while also trying to absorb that.
“Sometimes when you go out there and you make a decision, it doesn’t always play out or work in the way that you want it to.
“And that’s what the key for the rest of this tour is: making sure that we stay true to our beliefs of how we play our cricket.
“But also, we do know that we could have definitely been a lot better in certain areas throughout that Test match.”
News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.
