England’s Ben Stokes. (Photo: Marty Melville/AFP. )
Ben Stokes’ request for the Ashes Series is actually very simple: He is looking for quick, tame batting lines that promote England’s aggressive play.
Under Stokes and Brendon McCullum’s watch, England almost single-handedly changed the approach to Test cricket: Forget boring matches that end in a draw; now they are playing to force a result.
And don’t think that the Englishmen will deviate from their fearless path simply because they are involved in a historic series against Australia.
“Win or lose; we will play in such a way that none of the Tests in the Series around the Axis ends in a draw. It doesn’t matter what the score is or what the situation looks like; our approach will not change.”
England have won ten of their 12 Tests under Stokes and they ran amok in Pakistan earlier.
The visitors then batted at a rate of more than five runs per over, while Harry Brook shone as a middle-order batsman.
The young player scored 468 runs at an average of 95. His three hundreds ensured that England won the series at a trot.
Although the new English approach to the game provides a lot of entertainment, someone like Steve Smith is still a little skeptical.
“Even someone like Alex Lees stormed out of his batting camp when he didn’t have many runs to his name yet. It’s definitely exciting, but I don’t really know if it’s sustainable,” said the Australian batsman.
“Are they going to be able to do the same on a green pitch when bowlers like Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc are firing on all cylinders? At least I don’t know that well.”
Terms:
16 to 20 June: First Test at Edgbaston
June 28 to July 2: Second Test at Lord’s
July 6 to 10: Third test on Headingley
July 19 to 23: Fourth Key at Old Trafford
27 to 31 July: Fifth Test at the Oval
