England’s men’s Test captain Ben Stokes has shed new light on some of his more eyebrow-raising calls during last year’s Ashes campaign and claimed his team “will live forever in the memory of people who were lucky enough to witness us play cricket”.
Stokes plays a central role in the new three-part documentary series ‘Ashes 2023 | Our Take’ produced by England and Wales Cricket Board and released this week.
In the immediate aftermath of the fourth Ashes Test at Manchester last July, which ended in a rain-soaked draw thereby ensuring Australia retained the urn, Stokes delivered a rallying speech to his deflated players in the Old Trafford dressing room.
“Everything we’ve done up until now isn’t going to stop because we haven’t managed to win the urn back,” said Stokes who, with men’s team coach Brendon McCullum, has pioneered the ‘BazBall’ philosophy of always playing to win.
“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.
“I know it’s going to be a bit flat, I know it’s going to hurt that we go into the next game (at The Oval) not being able to get the urn back.
“But what we have done is something a lot bigger than any Ashes trophy could ever signify for this team – be the team that everybody will always remember.”
By the time the rivalry resumes in Australia in 2025-26, it will be more than a decade since England won an Ashes series (the most recent being in the UK in 2015) and 15 years since they scored a Test match win on their opponents’ home patch.
But provided both Stokes (currently aged 33 and battling a chronic knee injury) and McCullum maintain the leadership union they forged two years ago, the 2025-26 Ashes campaign looms as a defining moment for their ‘Baz Ball’ brand.
The left-field mindset Stokes might bring to Test cricket’s founding rivalry became obvious in the first two days of last year’s Ashes battle, which ultimately finished deadlocked at 2-2.
Having blazed 8-393 from just 78 overs on day one of the series opener at Edgbaston, and with former skipper Joe Root unconquered on 118, Stokes gambled by foreclosing England’s innings in the hope of snaring an Australia wicket or two before stumps.
“I was actually the first person I think he raised the point to,” veteran England fast bowler Stuart Broad told the documentary of Stokes’s surprise decision to declare with 20 minutes to bowl at Australia’s top order.
“He said ‘I promised myself before the series, if I could influence the game and drive the mentality forward in a positive way … (and) if I thought it, I’m going to do it.
“And I said, ‘Okay, if you thought it then let’s live by it’.”
Australia’s openers David Warner and Usman Khawaja survived the four-over new-ball burst to add 14 runs and, given the visitors reached their final-day victory target of 281 with just two wickets to spare, in retrospect Stokes’s punt might have proved costly.
However, the allrounder remained unrepentant when revisiting his decision in the documentary and maintains if he’d held a tough, leaping chance off tailender Nathan Lyon on a frantic final evening at Edgbaston the result would have fallen England’s way.
“Any decision I make will never be based on ‘well, we’re definitely not going to lose if we make this one, so I’ll go with it’,” Stokes said.
“It will always be about what’s going to give us the best opportunity to win a game.”
Having claimed the two wickets he had eyed the previous evening within an hour of play resuming the next day, Stokes then pulled another surprise when he called on part-time medium-pacer Harry Brook to bowl ahead of specialist seamer Ollie Robinson.
At that stage of his nascent career, Brook had bowled just eight overs at Test level for a solitary wicket and concedes he thought Stokes was joking when thrown the ball at Edgbaston with Australia in early strife at 2-39 and Steve Smith fresh at the crease.
“Every batter is most vulnerable in their first however many balls, so to bring on Harry Brook …,” Stokes told the documentary about his unorthodox move.
“I don’t think Steve Smith would have faced anybody like Harry Brook before.
“The last thing I think he was ever expecting, and you don’t want to get out to Harry Brook.”
Again, the ploy didn’t produce the outcome Stokes had hoped but the skipper – who has led his team to 14 wins from 23 Tests since replacing Root at the helm in 2022 – stuck to the philosophy in the wake of criticism after Australia won the first two Tests last year.
He cited the desire to stop Australia winning an Ashes series on English soil for the first time since 2001 was a key motivational ploy in the lead-up to the fifth Test at The Oval even though the urn remained in the visitors’ keeping.
“You want to win it, you don’t want to retain the Ashes,” Stokes said in the documentary, noting there was just four days between the disappointment of Old Trafford and the start of the final dead rubber.
“That was enough inspiration for the dressing room – let’s not let the Aussies go back saying they’ve won the Ashes.”
Stokes also maintains Australia should have “absolutely p*ssed that game” (won) at The Oval given they were 0-126 chasing 384 for victory when a controversial change of ball sparked a collapse that yielded 8-154 from the ensuing 40 overs.
Ultimately, it was England’s impetuosity – through the premature declaration at Edgbaston and with the bat after establishing a solid platform in the first innings of the next Test at Lord’s – that seemingly stopped them claiming their first Ashes series win in a decade.
However, the true success or otherwise of the ‘BazBall’ era will rest on England’s efforts when they next tour Australia where they have recorded a series victory just once (2010-11) and won a total of six Tests from 46 attempts since 1986-87.
Despite Stokes’s suggestion the current iteration of England’s Test outfit is one that will live forever in the game’s folklore, his captaincy predecessor Root – who led them to a solitary victory in his last 17 starts as skipper – holds a more measured view.
“I don’t think anyone thinks we’re something we’re not,” Root said in the final episode of the documentary.
“We’re not trying to say that we’re the best team in the world.
“One of the sayings that comes out of the dressing room – I think Leachy (spin bowler Jack Leach) actually came up with it – is teams might be better than us, but they won’t be braver than us.
“And it’s a great way to play the game.”