Stokes committed to being captain despite atrocious show after admitting that his side were poor in the series.
Stokes admits England have been ‘poor’ but remains committed to captaincy.
Ben Stokes stated that he is still dedicated to leading England, but he acknowledged that his team lost the Ashes series in a record-tying 11 days after failing to endure a “barrage” from Australia during the first three Tests.
Prior to this trip, Stokes, who has been England’s Test captain since 2022, signed a new two-year central contract that expires at the end of the summer of 2027. Regarding his future in international cricket, he stated that nothing has changed since the tour began and that he “absolutely” still wants to be captain.
England came to Australia with great expectations of becoming the first team to win an Ashes series away from home since 2010–11, but they were completely outplayed, losing by 85 runs in Adelaide and eight wickets in Perth and Brisbane. Stokes acknowledged that Australia has been “a lot better” than England, citing the inconsistent performance of his bowlers as a particular letdown.
“It obviously sucks,” Stokes said. “Knowing now that we can’t achieve what we set out to do here is obviously very disappointing… It’s quite simple to me that Australia have been able to execute batting, bowling and fielding a lot more than us on a much more consistent basis.
“They’ve been able to execute everything a lot better than us [for] a much more consistent period of time. We’ve had moments where we’ve been very good, but Australia have been a lot better than us over a much longer period of time in this series so far.
“We know the plans that work out here. We’ve just not been able to execute those plans for long enough. We did it in moments and did it in passages, but you just can’t be so poor with your execution as consistently as we have been over these first three games – and particularly with the ball, because when you’re off here, it gets punished, and we’ve seen that.”