Follow UsEngland’s Test captain Ben Stokes insists there will be no let-up in his side's dynamic approach during the Ashes series against arch-rivals Australia, which starts on Friday (June 16) in Birmingham. Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum have overseen 11 wins from 13 Tests since they joined forces last year, playing in an ultra-aggressive style. England have operated at a scoring rate of 4.65 under them.
"I think what we have done over the last year is show how we want to play, we found a way to get the best out of the team and the individuals. We get asked a lot if we are going to continue to play this way against this opposition or that opposition and we have made it clear that this is how England play their cricket against any opposition, because it's worked more often than not. I don't think there's any question around how we are going to go out and play our cricket, even though it's against Australia,” said Stokes.
"We've found a style and a way in which we want to play our cricket that has been very successful and regardless of the opposition, that's what we're going to try and stick to. Conditions can dictate how you can do that but we will always try to adapt to the conditions and still try to have that positive mode - to go out and have as much fun as we can. (We're) always looking to put pressure back on the opposition regardless of who it is. Not facing the man but facing the ball or vice-versa."
Stokes said England were committed to their all-action brand of cricket despite the challenge of facing Pat Cummins' men, who have the world's three top-ranked batsmen in their ranks and boast a fearsome pace attack. The Australians, who are Ashes holders, last week defeated India in the World Test Championship final at The Oval.
“I think they've got to give themselves confidence in their side around the comments they're going to make. But as I said, we've been used to being asked that question ourselves as a playing group. 'can you do it against South Africa, can we do it against Pakistan in Pakistan, are we going to be able to do it against Australia?"
"So I guess every team is maybe going to get asked by their side about how we're playing, so I don't see anything wrong with any comments made by the Australian guys or our responses,” said Stokes.
Talking about his relationship with players, the ace all-rounder said: “I feel as if I've always had a really good relationship with the players in this dressing room. I guess one of the most important things - being captain - was still being able to have the same trust even though now I'm making big decisions as I'm captain. And just making the guys in the dressing room believe that they are incredible players rather than anything else, and making them believe in themselves a lot more than what they probably did before that.
"So that was the biggest thing that I wanted to try and do was keep that trust factor between the relationship that we had before and make them believe that they were better than what they actually thought. Hopefully, I've done that."
England named their side for the Birmingham Test on Wednesday, with veteran seamers James Anderson and Stuart Broad picked alongside Ollie Robinson in the pace attack. Stokes, a lively seam bowler, has been troubled by a longstanding knee problem but said taking part in practice sessions this week had boosted his confidence.
There was no place in the team for express quicks Mark Wood or Josh Tongue but Stokes is unconcerned about the apparent lack of variety in his pace-bowling line-up. Meanwhile, Moeen Ali has been called out of Test retirement after specialist spinner Jack Leach was ruled out of the series with a back injury.
"A player like Mo, who I have seen put in some unbelievable match-winning performances, albeit a long time ago, was something that I couldn't look past. That was a stomach and a heart feeling rather than my brain and I have generally stuck with my gut throughout my whole captaincy so far. Moeen Ali is going to come in here and I am looking at what he can offer to this team on his best days and nothing else."
(With inputs from AFP)